BeyTrix
by Elven-Princess Ginny
Summary: A BeybladeMatrix Crossover. Just posted Chapter Seven - Driving Lessons. Devi's gone missing... can they find her? The Blade Breakers learn how to drive, Matrix-style. R&R!
1. Virus

**BeyTrix  
**  
**Me**: Hey, guys! Long time, no post, eh? Well, exams are coming up, so I'm gonna be posting a fair amount of stuff this weekend, since I won't get to post for a while... Anyway....  
**Shi**: This is a new story of Aibou's. It's a Beyblade Matrix cross.  
**Primrose**: Yeah. She's almost done the second chappie, too! Go master!  
**Bob**: Yeah. She don't own Beyblade, she don't own the Matrix, but hell, she does own the plot and her original characters.  
**Me**: Well, R&R!  
  
Chapter One  
  
_Virus  
_  
Four teenagers sat up, talking, on the floor of a large room, which was empty except for them, several sleeping bags, and another teen, who was still asleep. Three of the talking kids, as well as the sleeping one, were boys, whereas the other was a female. The girl, whose name was Hilary, was about 17 years of age, and was still clad in her pink nightgown. She was half asleep, and would occasionally lean her head on the boy next to her's shoulder out of drowsiness, only to wake up upon contact.  
The boy next to her, Ray Kong, was of Chinese origin, and had a long, black ponytail that was wrapped in cloth, and his bangs were held back by a headband with a Ying-Yang symbol on it. He was wearing only a pair of black silk boxers (all could see that he was fairly – but not overly – fit) and was also 17 years old.  
On Hilary's other side was an American 17-year-old by the name of Max Tate. He had blonde hair, and wore a yellow T-shirt and a pair of dark green shorts. He was talking spiritedly about something.  
The last and youngest of the awakened group was a 14-year-old named Daichi. Daichi wore a purple sleeveless shirt along with matching shorts, and was saying, "I think King and Queen are going to give us a run for our money this year."  
"Doubt it," replied Max.  
Daichi glanced at his watch. "Did something happen between them and Kai? Ever since he learned that they and their team are our next opponents, he's been training non-stop. I mean, today he left at about six thirty, and he hasn't been back since, and it's almost noon."  
"Kai's always been like that," Ray put in. "Hey, should we wake Tyson up soon?"  
The four of them looked over at their 17-year-old friend Tyson Granger, who was still lying in his sleeping bag, sound asleep, snoring slightly. Tyson had shoulder-length dark blue hair that was normally tied back in a ponytail and covered by a ball cap – now, however, it looked like a birch broom in the fits. Max, grinning mischievously, stood up and walked over to where Tyson lay. He drew in a deep breath, and said, in a very loud voice, "TYSON! WE'RE GOING OUT FOR FOOD AND THERE'S NONE LEFT IN THE HOUSE AND WE'RE LEAVING YOU HERE!"  
"Huh?! Wha?! Where's the food?!" Tyson said hurriedly, as he sat up to see his four friends laughing. "Why do you always do that?"  
"Why do you always fall for it?" Hilary commented. She looked at him questioningly, and inquired, "What are you wearing?"  
Ty looked down and, to everyone's amusement but his own, saw that he was wearing Spiderman pajamas. "AH!" he screamed and ran out of the room, leaving the others laughing to kill themselves.  
"Poor kid," Ray said, standing up and politely helping Hilary to her feet. "I think we've scarred him for life."  
"I think he was scarred for life long before he met you people," said Hilary.  
The Max, smiling, rested his arm on Ray's shoulder and daring went where no boy has ever been. He said, as a joke, "I think he was scarred for life the day he met you, Hil."  
"Hey!" Hilary said, and smacked him in the arm; he stumbled, and then purposely fell over.  
Ray smiled an award-winning smile. "Nice one," he said, and gave her a high five before helping Max back up. "And you're a brave soul, Max."  
  
Twenty minutes later, when the entire group was dressed, fed, watered, and equipped with their beyblades, they left Tyson's house on their bicycles. Tyson seemed to be leading the group, but nobody else knew where he was going. Because of this, young Daichi asked the question.  
Tyson waited a moment before replying. "I realized something this morning."  
"What, that Spiderman doesn't suit you?" teased Hilary.  
"Shut up!" he exclaimed. Everybody except Tyson stopped, and Hil's eyes welled up. Realizing that his friends were no longer following him, Tyson halted, rode back, and got off his bike. "For once, I'm trying to be serious."  
"Why did you yell at her?" Daichi inquired.  
Ty just shook his head, got back on his bike, and said, "You coming?"  
The group looked cautious at first, not sure if they should follow Tyson or not – he didn't yell at his friends a lot anymore, and he hardly ever told them to shut up. But Ray and Max nodded, followed by Daichi and finally Hilary, who was still in slight shock. They continued to pursue Tyson for about five more minutes, silent, and unsure of where they were going.  
Suddenly, he stopped, and got off his bike. When the teens looked up at the little restaurant they'd arrived at, they were painfully reminded of the horrible happenings of a year ago. It came back as clearly as if it had happened the day before. One of their best friends, Kenny – a.k.a. Chief – just... up and disappeared. The whole town searched everywhere for months, with no results. Also, Max, who's mother worked in America and with a team called the All Starz, for out that Emily (the only girl on the All Starz team), who was in Japan with her team, had disappeared without a trace as well. Nobody had heard from them or made any progress in the case since then.  
Tyson walked into the small restaurant, which Kenny's parents owned. A middle-aged man was behind the counter. "Hello kids," he greeted them. "How are you? Are you hungry?"  
"We're fine, and we just ate, but thanks anyway. Listen, would I be able to take a look at Kenny's laptop?"  
The man smiled. "Oh, of course Tyson!" he said, and walked up a set of stairs and out of sight. A moment later, and came back and gave a laptop to Tyson, who took it and went over to a table with his friends. "If you need anything, feel free to ask."  
"Sure. Thanks a lot," called Tyson, as he opened up the laptop. "Guys, we never actually had a look at this, did you know that?"  
"We know now," Daichi said. "Now, explain to me why we're going to break into Kenny's laptop?"  
Tyson sighed. "We're going to talk to Dizzi, and check out Kenny's e-mail." After turning on the power, a screen came up and asked for a password. "Password? Kenny never had a password!"  
"Oh, don't you know anything?" Hilary said, shoving Tyson out of the chair and sitting down herself. "You need a password to get into any computer. And it's usually the simplest thing in the world. A word or name you hear every day, but something that no computer thief would think of. The only problem is..."  
"Finding something Kenny would use?" Max inquired.  
"Bingo," Hilary said, gracefully pushing her hair out of her eyes. They sat there for a minute or two, racking their brains and trying words the Chief may've used.  
Suddenly, Ray went over to her, motioned for Hilary to remove herself from the chair – which she did – and said down. "We are all stupid," he said, and he typed something down. When he hit the enter button, the screen went black, and Kenny's desktop came up. "It was so obvious."  
"What was it?" questioned Tyson.  
Ray smiled, and winked. "I think I won't tell you, and let you ponder over it for I while," he replied. Turning to the computer, he said, "Dizzi, you here?"  
The computer was silent. Everybody looked confused. Many years ago, Kenny's bit-beast, Dizzara – more commonly called Dizzi – was imprisoned in his laptop after a freak power surge. Over the years, she'd helped them in battles and tournaments, and turned them into the World Champion team of Beyblading.  
"Dizzi, come on, it's only us, the Blade-Breakers," Tyson said.  
Ray tossed aside the fact that Dizzi wasn't answering. "Maybe she's asleep or something," he suggested, not noticing the folder that said 'Dizzara'. "Let's just go check out his e-mail." They clicked on his e-mail inbox, and were happy to find that they didn't need a password to get in. Ray scanned all his e-mails with no luck, and then went into something called History. Luckily, it was the history of Kenny's Instant Messages. Going into one of the most recent ones, which took place a little over a year ago, they read through it.  
The person Kenny had been chatting with was none other than Emily. The conversation went like this:  
  
_'Emily_: Hey, brainiac  
_Kenny_: Hello Em. What r u at?   
_Emily_: N2M... u?   
_Kenny_: 'Bout the same. I think Dizzi's infected with something... she's acting all weird   
_Emily_: Infected... a virus?   
_Kenny_: yeah sob I hope it's nothing major. But she's been randomly closing programs, and whenever   
_Emily_: Kenny? Kenny, r u there?   
_Kenny_: yeah, I'm here. Whenever I go IMing people, these weird pop-ups keep coming up. That's why I was just cut of there for a couple minutes.   
_Emily_: ok. Brb, Ken!   
_Kenny_: Alrighty  
_Emily_: Back! Listen, I just talked with Judy – Max's mom. She said you should probably lock Diz up.   
_Kenny_: I know...   
_Emily_: Hey, are your people coming over later on?   
_Kenny_: Yeah, I think.   
_Emily_: Hey, do you know who a person by the username of 'Raven' is?   
_Kenny_: no... but he just IMed me too!   
_Emily_: Okay... this is weird, man.   
_Kenny_: Yeah.   
_Emily_: I g2g, so ttyl!   
_Kenny_: yeah, peace.'  
  
"Hey," Tyson said, "this was the day before Kenny disappeared!"  
"Well, _duh_," replied Hilary. "I wonder who this Raven person is – they sound suspicious... Ray, do you know how to find it out?"  
Ray nodded. "It's only simple," he told her, as he closed up the discussion between Emily and Kenny, and went into another one, which was with 'Raven'. It was a short one – very short, with only about half a dozen messagees each. Kenny didn't seem to have a clue, until near the end, but it looked as though they knew who he was, as they kept calling him 'Chief'. They said something about meeting that night, under the bridge.  
"So it seems we've found out something," Daichi voiced the obvious. "Can we find out who Raven is?"  
"I can e-mail this person," Ray informed him. He clicked on Raven's name, and a small informational box showed up that said 'littleblackraven13666hotmail.com'. The boy then went into write an e- mail. After writing the address out, he wrote in the dialogue box, 'Hello Raven. We are friends of the Chief's. We were just wondering if you knew where he was. Thank you!'  
"What the hell?! Why are you being so polite?! Raven could be some crazy old fart bag who manipulated Kenny and kidnapped him!!" Hilary yelled angrily.  
Kong shook his head. "Honestly, Hil, don't you realize that there's a much greater chance Raven will reply if we ask nicely?"  
Hilary pouted.  
Ray clicked on 'Send', and a few moments later, a box popped up that said that the e-mail address they'd put in did not exist. "That's odd," he said slowly. He repeated the process a couple more times, just to make sure he didn't make a foolish mistake, but each time, he came up with the same result.  
"Damn!" Tyson said as he pounded his fist on the table.  
A kindly woman, who happened to be Kenny's mother, walked in. "Is everything all right?" she inquired.  
"Oh, we made a little bit of progress on where Kenny might be... we think," Hilary said.  
"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Kenny's mom. "Listen, if it's no trouble, could you please show the police what you've come up with?"  
The young girl smiled. "Of course we will. If they can get even an inch closer to finding Kenny, then we'll do anything within our power."  
"Glad to here it," the woman replied, a smile on her face.  
  
Half an hour later, at around two o'clock, after they'd shown the cops what they'd found, the group went to find Kai. Ray, who was pretty sure he knew where the guy would be, was leading his friends. They soon came to the trees that surrounded a small field. After maneuvering their way through the woods, they spotted Kai.  
Kai was in the middle of the field, with his beyblade. Half a dozen empty soda cans were placed strategically on the grass, standing erect. Kai Hiwatari himself was the same age as the majority of his friends, and had bluish-silver hair. As soon as he saw his friends in the corner of his eye, he summoned Dranzer, the bit-beast that inhabited his beyblade, back to him.  
"Kai! Hey, Kai! Guess what we found out!!" Tyson said, as he, followed by his friends, ran towards the middle of the field.  
Dranzer was almost into Kai's hand when a gunshot rang through the air. Tyson, Max, Ray, Hilary, and Daichi stopped dead in their tracks. Although it didn't contact the blade, the sheer speed of the bullet in such close proximity of the beyblade caused Dranzer to fall to the ground. The bullet itself hit the ground not ever a hair's width away from the toe of Kai's sneaker.  
"What the hell was that?!" Tyson yelled.  
The half a dozen teenagers looked to the origin of the sound, which was a small hill, not a minute's run away, on which stood two people. Both were dressed in long, black coats, along with dark sunglasses. The figure holding the pistol had straight, sorrel hair that reached the color of the jacket. The other person, who was talking into a cellular telephone, had red-orange hair that was tied back in a ponytail.  
Kai bent down to pick up Dranzer, whereas his friends went to see if the object that almost hit Kai was a real bullet. When they found out it was, they looked back up at the hill, but unfortunately, the couple of strangers were gone.  
Later that evening, five of the six were still in shock. Kai, however, seemed very tranquil and collected... the exact opposite of Hilary.  
"How can you be so calm at a time like this?!" she nearly yelled. "For all we know, some freaky strangers may be plotting to kill us all!"  
Kai shook his head, and sighed. "I would prefer, Hilary, if we didn't discuss what happened back at the field."  
"Speaking of the field..." Tyson began, even though he was fully aware of Kai's death glare, "why have you been training so much lately? I mean, you can't be that worried about King and Queen's team – King and Queen themselves are pushovers, and I'm pretty sure that the rest of the Royal Flush is no different."  
Kai sighed. "Ignoramus. I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the Punishers."  
Tyson was taken aback. "Did you just call me stupid?"  
"The Punishers..." Ray said, "they sound like a team, but I've never heard of them before."  
"They are a team," Kai said. "I only found out about them when I was talking to Mr. Dickinson the day of our last victory. Apparently, they were late signing up, and originally, he wasn't going to let them into the tournament."  
"But...?" Daichi asked.  
"But Mr. D put them against the Blade Sharks, to see if they were any good. It turns out – and these are his words – that they have exception skill, and can probably give the Blade Breakers a run for their money. That's what he said, and when he says a team is good... they're usually tough."  
"Cool," Ray said.  
"I wonder," Hilary said dreamily, "if there's any cute guys on the team..."  
Daichi inquired, "Hey, do you think there's any hot chicks on the team?"  
"Do you know if they have bit-beasts?" asked Max.  
Once again, Tyson questioned, "Did you call me stupid?"  
"Honestly, you people are weird," spoke Kai. "Anyway, that day, when I was at the BBA Headquarters, I looked up their info – after all, I'd never heard of a team called the Punishers before. The main bladers are three girls, but their alternate is a male. And yes, Tate, they do have bit- beasts. Their first match is tomorrow, right after we take on the Royal Flush team. And if both we and they advance, we'll be facing them two days after tomorrow."  
"Damn, that's a handful to take in..." Ray said.  
Hilary fixed Kai with an unblinking stare. When he asked what in God's name she was doing, she replied, "Just tell me what your feelings on what happened today are."  
"Honestly?" he inquired. She nodded. "All right then. Personally, I think this is all some set-up by Chief and Emily."  
Hilary gasped. "What do you mean?!"  
"Well, think about it. Kenny and Emily disappear without a trace one day, noticing it would cause an absolute uproar, and the one day we make any progress at all on where he and Emily might be, I almost get shot!"  
Ray looked thoughtful. "He does make a bit of sense, Hilary... but Emily wouldn't do that, and definitely not Chief!"  
"Oh..." Hilary pouted. "I'm not gonna be able to get to sleep tonight..."  
"Kai, DID YOU CALL ME STUPID?!"


	2. The Punishers

Me: What's up, y'all? Here's the second chapter, hope you likes it!

Bob: She does not own Beyblade of Matrix, but she does own the plot and her original characters.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
_The Punishers  
_  
"TYSON!!"  
This was the first sound of the morning for the six teenagers. Tyson jumped about five feet into thew air, and landed flat on his face. The other five sat up, confused, glaring at him. About ten seconds later, the door leading to the kitchen opened wide, and an old man – Tyson's grandpa – appeared in the doorway.  
"Tyson! Come on, dog, get up, yo! You got a phone call," explained Mr. Granger.  
Hilary looked befuddled. "Who would be calling Tyson, especially at this hour?"  
Ty shrugged, but stood up nonetheless. He walked into the kitchen, yanked up the receiver, and muttered a sleepy, "Hello?"  
"Hello Tyson," said a familiar voice. "It's certainly been a while. Do you know who I am?"  
"Nope. No idea."  
The person on the other end seemed shocked. "What do you mean, you don't know who I am?! I was your friend since you were seven years old! Before you could walk! How can you say you don't remember me?!" The voice sighed. "Are you sure you don't know who I am?"  
Ty thought for a moment. "Nope," he said truthfully. "Don't know."  
"It's me!" the person yelled, exasperated. "Kenny! Chief!"  
"Kenny?! Nah," he said, dismissing what the voice had said, "you can't be Kenny. He disappeared a year ago."  
"Tyson, I am Kenny! I'll prove it to you. I have a talking bit-beast named Dizzara that's stuck in my laptop. At the opening of Robert's stadium, the Dark Bladers took me hostage, in case the Blade Breakers lost. Four years ago, Max lost Draciel to Ian, and Kai lost Dranzer to Spencer. Kai used to be the captain of the Blade Sharks, and Ray used to be on the White Tigers and live in White Tiger Valley. Hilary –"  
"It is you!"  
"That's what I've been _trying_ to tell you! Now, I'm sure you have a bunch of questions, but –"  
Before he could finish, Tyson interrupted. "Where have you been, Kenny? Everyone's been so worried!"  
"I don't have the time to explain things to you right now! Listen, Tyson, I want you and the others to meet me tonight, at midnight, under the old bridge."  
Tyson wrote the time and place in pen on his hand. "Ok... hey, Chief, do you know what happened –"  
"– to Emily? Yeah, she's with me," replied Kenny.  
Just as Tyson opened his mouth to speak again, Chief hung up. "Damn!" After he slammed the receiver back on the base, music burst through the house. He made his way back to where his friends and grandfather were, and to his surprise, Grandpa was doing the moonwalk to Michael Jackson's song 'Beat It', while the kids were applauding.  
"Hey, Gramps! Shut off your music and go," a moody Tyson spoke.  
Grandpa shut off the CD player, mounted in on his shoulder, and, as he passed his grandson, he said, "No love for the old man."  
"So who called ya?" Hilary inquired as Tyson sat down. He told them everything that was said in his and Chief's conversation. "Oh, why didn't he tell us he was alive before now?!"  
"You can ask him that tonight," replied the young Mister Granger. "But for now, we should probably start practicing – the beybattle starts in less that thirty minutes, so we should warm up."  
"Wow," Ray spoke jokingly, "he actually makes sense."  
Ten minutes later, they went outside and Hilary set up the pop cans they'd emptied the night before. The boys, all except for one, began to train, with Hil watching over them like a hawk. Tyson, however, was sitting with his back to the side of the house, absent-mindedly stroking Dragoon.  
Hilary came over. "What's up?"  
"The sky," replied Tyson, as she sat down next to him.  
"Okay, what's wrong?" she inquired, taking his hand in hers.  
He sighed. "Kenny's up to something – I know it. He hates that bridge, and he doesn't like going out at night... something's wrong with him. I'm beginning to think Kai's right about the whole Kenny/Emily conspiracy thing."  
"No! Kenny would never –" she stopped, an angry look upon her face, and sighed. "Come on, don't worry 'bout it. The battle starts in ten minutes. Let's get going."  
"Okay," agreed Tyson, after a slight pause. "Come on guys! Let's go!"

Half an hour later, after they'd easily and severely beaten King and Queen's team, the Blade Breakers seated themselves directly behind the beydish to see these so-called Punishers. DJ Jazzman began to announce through his microphone. "Hello Beyblade fans! Eh, he... why am I bothering saying that? We just finished an excellent match between the Blade Breakers –" Tyson, Max, Hilary, and Daichi stood up in seats to wave at the crowd "– and the Royal Flush, with the World Champions emerging victorious. Now we have an interesting match between the Junior Bladers and a team that only entered the tournament a few days ago – the Punishers!"  
The assemblage cheered, and the two teams walked in. Tyson and his friends had seen the Junior Bladers before – they were a team made up of only preteens. They had three people, all boys, all of whom were waving spiritedly at the people.  
The Punishers, however, were quite different. As Kai had said, there were three girls and one boy, and they were about a year older than Tyson. The boy had short mousy hair that was spiked a little in the front. He wore, like each of his teammates, a black T-shirt, with 'The Punishers' stitched in fancy, white lettering on the back. On the front was a skull with two bones in an X position underneath, in the same color as the team name on the back – as well, each of what seemed to be their names were stitched on the front left part of the chest area. They each also wore jeans, although the boy's jeans were fairly baggier that the girls'.  
The first girl had black, shoulder-length hair that was left down, and wore a dog collar around her neck. She was about 5'8", the same height as the boy. The second chick had dirty blonde hair with lighter highlights, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail that reached passed her shoulders. This one was two or three inches shorter than her first two teammates, and an inch or so shorter than the last of them. Finally came the redhead, whose hair was kept down and cropped to an inch above her shoulders.  
"Go_thic_," Hilary said, putting emphasis on the last four letters.  
"Tell me about it," Maxie agreed. "I wonder if they're any good."  
"Well, folks, our first match-up is between Daniel and Nikki," DJ told them. One of the boys of the Junior Bladers, along with the shortest girl on the opposing team. "Bladers ready?" The boy gave Jazzman a thumbs up, and Nikki nodded. Along with the crowd, DJ shouted, "Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"  
Both obeyed. The two beyblades entered the dish, but after one hard slam from Nikki's blade, Daniel's exited it in pieces. The boy was in shock. The girl simply summoned her blade back to her hand, and sat down on the bench.  
"Whoa! Did you see that, folks? Amazing! I think the Blade Breakers may have some competition this time around."  
Nikki looked over to her friends, and said, "Tch. The Blade Breakers... sounds like they're local heroes..."  
"Not local, Nik. Didn't you hear the announcer? They're world champs..." the boy explained.  
"I heard him, all right," replied Nikki.  
DJ Jazzman began to speak again. "And let's get ready for our next match- up. Let's see... Bill versus Dominique. Come on, bladers!" Another of the youngsters, as well as the redhead, walked to the dish, launchers at the ready. "Bladers ready? All right! Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"  
The duo of beyblades soared into the beystadium, and it seemed like this Dominique girl liked to play more than her teammate. She did not attack straight away – she just kept easily evading the boy's attack.  
Dominique yawned. "This is boring," she said. "Hey, you! Bill, your name was? Yeah, would you mind actually trying?"  
"Oh, and it looks like Dominique is trash talking Bill!" DJ said.  
"Ah, what's the use?" she said, and as the boy's blade darted with full speed towards her own, her beyblade dodged the attack and the opposing blade flew itself right out of the dish.  
"And match two is won by the Punishers!" announced DJ. The girl sat down, and the last female member of the Punishers stood up, and met the last of the Junior Bladers at the dish. "The final round is a face off between Jake and the mysterious Raven!"  
"Raven!" Tyson exclaimed.  
"Jazz, it doesn't say 'The Mysterious Raven'. It just says Raven!" said the other speaker, Brad.  
"Yeah, but she sure looks mysterious, doesn't she?" replied DJ, resulting in a sigh from Brad. "Well, are the bladers ready?"  
"You're going down!" Jake said. "I'm way better than the other two!"  
"Yeah?" Raven asked. "You think so?"  
"Can the newcomers make it three for three? Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"  
Nobody saw what happened next – there was a flash of bright light in the dish, and when it disappeared, Raven's blade was spinning in the center of the beystadium, and Jake's beyblade was broken into pieces at his feet.  
"WHOA!" Jazzman announced. "AWESOME! And the Punishers emerge as the anonymous winners! Thanks for coming, folks! See you in two days' time, when the Punishers come and face the Blade Breakers."  
Tyson leaped over the rail to congradulate the mysterious team, but by the time he reached the bench, they were nowhere in sighed.  
As the group walked home, Max broke the awkward pause. "Tyson, I know you're worried about seeing Kenny tonight, but let's just not brood over it. Besides, we should probably start training."  
"Yeah. Max's right, Tyson," Hilary told him. "Soooooo......" She tried to think of something to talk about while they walked. "Did you guys have any interesting dreams last night?"  
There was a sudden outburst of 'Yeah' and 'Yes' from the boys.  
"Mine was really weird," said Daichi. "I dreamt a bunch of FBI dudes came into the house last night. They somehow stuck all our lips together so we couldn't speak, and them tied us up, and put mechanical bug-like things in our belly buttons!"  
"That's odd..." Ray said. "That's what happened in my dream."  
"Mine too!" exclaimed Max.  
"Same here," Tyson spoke.  
Kai actually spoke for once. "Mine as well."  
"It seems like it happened in all our dreams..." Hilary thought out loud. "That's just another mystery, I suppose... maybe it was something we ate."  
"Doubt it," Tyson told her. "Food never does stuff like this."  
  
It was several minutes before midnight when the six of them showed up at the bridge. The place appeared very lonely, save for them, but they knew that things aren't always the way they seem. Tyson began to pace back and forth, while the other boys leaned against the wall. Hilary just stood still until, all of a sudden, a hand touched her shoulder. She screamed, and her five male companions came running. The person behind Hil was wearing a black cloak, and was soon in a headlock from Kai.  
"Wait!" the person yelled. "Kai! Let go!"  
Another cloaked being walked out of the shadows. "Let him go, Hiwatari," a female voice ordered.  
Ray removed the hood from the one who'd snuck up on Hilary. It was Kenny! His hair was the same color, but styled differently, then it used to be. Now, it was really straight – his hair reached his shoulders, and his bangs stopped just above his eyes... his eyes! For once, you could actually see them! His glasses were gone, and his handsome blue eyes peered out at his friends as Kai released him.  
The girl, too, removed her hood. Emily smiled at them, her fiery hair tied back in an elbow-length ponytail. She noticed Kai looking at her oddly. "What is it?"  
"Nothing," replied he, shaking his head. "You just reminded me of something."  
Emily sighed. "Lemme guess, someone shot at you yesterday?"  
"Yeah!" Tyson exclaimed. "D'you guys know anything 'bout it?  
Kai looked at Tyson as though he had three heads. "You idiot, it was them!"  
"Huh?"  
Kenny looked guiltily at the ground.  
"Kenny did it. Not me! Kenny," Emily told them, pointing at the 16-year-old boy.  
"No," Hilary said. "The Chief would never –"  
"I did," he said. "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't frighten you too much. But I..."  
"There's no excuse, Chief." Kai didn't seem too surprised. "I knew you were somehow connected to it, but the thought that you... I'm ashamed of you, Kenny."  
"Look, he just wanted to see you before now!" Emily yelled. "He just wanted to see you – his friends – but the captain forbade it."  
"The captain?" inquired Ray.  
"It looks like we've got a fair amount of explaining to look forward to," Kenny said to Emily. "Come on, guys, have a seat." He pointed to the grassy hill. All of his friends sat down, and Emily removed her cloak to reveal a white T-shirt and a pair of black jeans. Kenny, as well, threw the cloak on the grass. He was wearing a sleeveless beige shirt and a pair of black pants. By his arms, you could tell that he was fit, and had worked out a fair amount.  
Hilary gawked at him.  
"What?" he asked.  
"K-Kenny..." she stuttered, "you... you're hot!"  
Tyson burst out laughing. "Kenny? The wimp, Chief? Hot?"  
"Yeah, ignoramus," replied Hilary, as she slapped hi upside the head.  
"Damn, what does that mean?!"  
Emily shook her head. "I wouldn't call Kenny a wuss, boy. He's pretty tough."  
"Tough? Yeah, right. Let's see then. Hit me, Kenny," Tyson said, standing up.  
"No," he said.  
Tyson looked at Hilary and Emily and said, matter-of-factly, "See? Told you he was a wuss. He won't hit me because he thinks he'll hurt himself, and he doesn't want me to hurt him if I retaliate."  
"That's not it!" replied Kenny in anger. "I don't want to hurt you!"  
Tyson laughed. "Hurt me? Honestly, me! I've been in karate since I was seven! I could kick your butt from here to Hong Kong any day of the week!"  
Emily, Hilary, and Kenny all sighed, and said in unison to Tyson, "Why did I know you were going to say that?"  
"Come on, Chief. If you think you can hurt me, let's me and you fight, right now," Tyson challenged.  
"Kenny, he's too stubborn to give in," Emily told him. "Just fight, but don't hurt him too much, all right?"  
Chief sighed. "Oh, I guess so."  
Both boys got into fighting stances. Tyson tried repeatedly punching and kicking his opponent, but each time came up short, because Kenny was so fast.  
"Damn, you're quick!" exclaimed Tyson after a little while. "But why don't you try to hit me!"  
"If you insist," Kenny said, and gave Tyson one hard blow to the chest. Tyson went down in an instant. Kenny ran over to the boy lying down on the ground, and extended his hand to him. "I'm sorry!"  
Just as the 16-year-old helped his friend up, a black stretch limousine drove up to the bridge. Kenny and Emily glanced at each other nervously.  
"We'll be back in a minute, guys," the girl said, as one of the windows rolled down and a hand reached out to beckon them forward. She and her ally snatched their cloaks off the ground and ran towards the limo. "What is it?" inquired Em.  
"We must warn you. We think they might be bugged," a voice said.  
Emily clapped her hand over her mouth, and Kenny stared back in disbelief. "No... it can't be. I don't believe it."  
"Why don't you bring them down and we'll see ourselves."  
The pair nodded, and returned to their friends. "Come with us," Kenny said.  
"What? What do you mean?" Hilary replied nervously.  
He looked desperate. "Please... just come..."  
"Why should we?" inquired Kai.  
"Do you guys trust us?" Emily asked.  
The group looked hesitant. Daichi nodded, followed by Tyson and Max. Ray, as well, nodded. Hilary opened her mouth to say something, but she thought against it, and with a nod gave an affirmative answer.  
"Kai?" asked Chief.  
He thought for a moment. "I was pretty ashamed of you," said Kai, "when I found out you nearly shot me, but..." He paused slightly, and then continued. "But you've never led us wrong, friend. Let's go."

Me: Hey dudes. Just a little note. Kenny's hair, in case you're wondering, is styled like Riku's from Kingdom Hearts. Thanks! R&R


	3. The Rabbit Hole

**Me**: Hey guys. Here's the 3rd Chapter. It's a little short, because it was originally only going to be half a chapter. But, that's because when I was writing the second part of the chapter, it got way too long.  
**Shi:** Hey, it's like the Merovingian says: "cause and effect". Consequence. Hey, it is the nature of the universe and all. We can't escape it.  
**Me**: Oh, in case I never mentioned this during the first two Chapters, BeyTrix takes place after _The Matrix_ but before _The Matrix: Reloaded_.  
**Bob**: These freaks do not own Beyblade or the Matrix.  
  
Chapter Three  
  
_The Rabbit Hole  
_  
The eight teenagers walked at a fairly fast pace towards the limo. The door to the back opened on cue, and Kenny and Emily, followed by their friends, stepped in. Since there were only two people in the back of the vehicle, there was still a plethora of space to sit down. The Blade Breakers gasped as they saw that the two already there were Nikki and Raven of the Punishers. As well, in the front were Dominique and the boy. None of them were wearing their 'team uniforms' – rather, they were all cloaked like Kenny and Emily'd been.  
"Hey, we know you people!" Hilary burst suddenly.  
Nikki glared at her. "Whadda you mean, 'you people'?"  
"Be quiet, both of you," ordered Emily. She then turned to Kai, an expression of seriousness upon her face, and said, "Take off your shirt."  
The bladers looked taken aback, whereas Kenny, Nikki, and Raven, like Emily, looked extremely momentous. Dominique took out a pistol, and pointed it at Kai, who inquired, "What are you doing? Why do you want me to undress?"  
"It is necessary, Kai! It's for our protection," Kenny explained.  
"Protection... from what?" inquired Daichi.  
Tapping a revolver against her thigh, Nikki replied, "Against you people. We think you might be bugged."  
"Bugged?" asked Kai.  
"Take it off," Emily said. Kai obeyed.  
"I still don't see what this has – WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"  
This was the basic reaction from the beybladers (though some weren't as vulgar) when Raven was handed something that, to them, looked like a really warped machine with a tube thing on it from Dominique. Raven inclined her head to Kenny, Emily, and Nikki, who proceeded to hold Kai down.  
"Don't worry," Emily soothed Kai, "she's not going to shoot you."  
Angrily, he replied, "Then what the hell is she going to do?!"  
Raven turned to Kai's friends. "I must ask you not to interfere."  
Scared, they nodded. Hilary latched on to Tyson's arm.  
Raven sighed, and put the tube part over Kai's bellybutton. She must have pressed something then, because four things popped out of the sides of it, placing them in his abdominal, so it looked kind of like a stand. Time seemed to freeze for most of the occupants of the car, until electric shocks went into his belly and he let out a cry like a wounded dog as he struggled against his restraints. A moment later, into the tube from Kai's bellybutton came a weird insect-like thing and some blood.  
"I thought that was a dream!" he said, as Raven threw it out the window.  
"Figures," Nikki said. "Did all of you have this dream? Did you all get bugged?"  
Each of the Blade Breakers nodded solemnly.  
"Well, who wants to go next?" asked Emily. Hilary hid behind Tyson, Daichi hid behind her, and Tyson pushed Ray in front of himself.  
Kai shook his head. "What a bunch of wusses," he thought aloud. "Look, guys, it doesn't really hurt... until you get shocked and it gets hauled out of you – but that's only for a second," he added reassuringly.  
Ray came forward, removed his shirt, and sat where Kai'd been a moment earlier. Dominique and Nikki whistled at him, but Raven said, "Don't worry about them. They'll whistle, but they won't do anything else." The procedure was the same as when it had been done to Kai, and Ray also let out a small scream and struggled before the bug was removed and thrown out the window. Max went next, followed by Tyson, and then young Daichi.  
Finally, only Hilary was left. She sat in the spot they'd all sat in for debugging, but refused to take off her shirt. "Not with them looking," she replied, pointing to her teammates.  
"All right," Nikki said, and turned to the Blade Breakers. "Boys, avert your eyes. Kenny, don't worry, me and Em can hold her down."  
Chief nodded, and all the boys in the back put their backs in Hilary's direction. She smiled, and was about to take off her shirt when she glared at someone.  
Dominique elbowed the boy next to her in the stomach, saying, "You can't look either, idiot."  
Hilary removed her shirt, revealing a pink lace bra, and braced herself for the pain that was sure to come. When it did, she let out a high-pitched scream that nearly broke their eardrums.  
Suddenly, they heard something pull up beside them. Dominique, who was on the passenger side, opened her window, and nodded a couple of times before closing it back up. They group heard the person start up the vehicle again, about the same time as the boy, who was in the driver's seat, started up the car.  
Raven motioned for everyone to sit back, and they all obeyed, making sure to buckle up. A couple of seconds later, they were zooming down the road, and Hilary was sure they were going over the speed limit. "Kenny," she said quietly, "you didn't join a criminal gang, did you? Do you smoke and steal stuff? Have you ever... used a gun?"  
"We're not criminals!" replied Chief, outraged.  
"Where are we going?" asked Ray.  
"Hideout," replied Nikki simply.  
Hilary looked at Kenny again, and was about to say something, but he said, "We're not crooks!"  
"So, what's the deal with your name, anyway?" Daichi asked Raven.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Well, I didn't think Raven was a very common name. But maybe where you're from –"  
She interrupted. "You guys think my name's Raven?" They all nodded. "Oh, right, the spin top thing... Well, that's only a nickname. Dominique and Nikki aren't their names either. Well... they used to be our names. Honest, I never knew my birth name. I was taken from my home at a very young age, you see."  
"Don't explain anything to them here," 'Nikki' said suddenly.  
'Raven' nodded, and everyone went quiet. About two minutes later, the limousine halted, and everybody got out. They were in a very dark building. Next to their vehicle was a motorcycle, with a man in his mid-thirties standing by it. He came over to them, and shook each of the Blade Breakers' hands.  
"So, who are these kids?" asked the man.  
Pointing to each one individually, Kenny introduced them. "Guys," he said to the bladers, "I'm sorry to involve you in this, but after what I've done to you... I have to give you an explanation."  
"You cannot be told everything, though," said 'Raven'. "Not at first."  
"True," Kenny said. "How much can they know?"  
The man touched his hand on Kenny's shoulder, as if to relieve him of something. He seemed to be in his thirties, and was about 5'11" in height. His hair was shaved, and was very muscular. "Come on everyone. Let's go."  
He began to walk towards a door at the other end of the room. The Punishers followed, and then Kenny, Emily, and their friends. He opened it, and everybody stepped into the room. It was very homey – beanbag chairs, couches, recliners. Several glasses of water rested on a coffee table in front of where the man sat.  
"I'm guessing you are very confused now. A little like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole," he said to the Blade Breakers, and all the people sat down. "And who's to blame you. You know very little – slaves never know much."  
"Slaves?" Hilary interrupted. "We're not slaves. What are you talking about?"  
He smiled. "Knew you'd say that. Lots of people do. Let me explain something to you. Have you ever been blindfolded?" They nodded. "Ever worn a noseplug?" They repeated their previous action. "Earplugs?" Again, they nodded. "Not been able to taste food?" They continued nodding. "Not been able to feel anything?" They nodded, beginning to get impatient. "Now, what if all of these things happened at the same time, and you lost all your senses?"  
"You'd be dead," replied Tyson.  
Kai added, "Or you'd want to."  
'Raven' smiled. "Exactly. But you see, there is a veil over you, shielding you from the real world. So really, you are a slave, and an unknowing one at that, and your prison is the very world you call Home."  
Hilary shook her head in disbelief. "No – that's impossible." She looked over at Kenny, as if hoping he would tell her that she was right, and this man was wrong.  
"It's true. I've been to the real world, guys – I've seen it," Ken informed them.  
The man indicated a blue and a red pill, resting by each glass of water. Behind them, they heard footsteps, and then a door closing. "If you take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe what you want to believe." The group glanced up at Kenny and Emily, who were on either side of them. Kenny looked over at them for a moment, and then returned his gaze to the fellow. They did the same. "But take the red pill... the story continues, and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."  
They whispered amongst themselves for a minute, and all seemed unsure.  
"Know this," Emily said, "all we're offering you is the truth."  
Ray and Kai looked at each other, nodded, and each took the red pill. Max did the same, as did Tyson.  
"I'll do it," said Hilary, picking up a red pill, "but only because of you guys." She put the red pill in her mouth and swallowed it with some water. "Come on Daichi."  
"No," he replied. "I don't believe any of this." He retrieved the blue pill. "But if it is real, come and get me in a week's time, okay? If you guys say it's okay, I'll come."  
Hil looked shocked. "B-b-b-but Daichi!" yelled she, as the child swallowed a blue pill.  
"G'bye."  
The man sighed. "You five, come with me. Emily, Kenny... take care of the little one."  
They nodded, and walked out by way of the door they'd entered through. "See you in a bit!" Emily called.  
Max, Tyson, Kai, Ray, and Emily followed the old man through a door opposite the one Emily, Daichi, and Kenny'd gone through. They ascended up a flight of stairs, and came to the room the Punishers had gone off to.  
"Can you take it from here, Pops?" asked 'Dominique'.  
"Well, two of you can go now. The hard-line's in the parking lot."  
"Right-o. See you, kids," 'Dominique' said, as she and 'Nikki' left to answer a ringing telephone that they could faintly hear.  
'Raven' grinned. She was sitting in front of several computer monitors. "That pill you took, it's a tracker. It messes up some of your signals, so we can find your location."  
"What do you mean?" inquired Max. "We're right here!"  
"Sure," the boy replied sarcastically. "So, who wants to be born first?"  
The group seemed very confused. "Born?"  
"Someone sit in the chair," the man said, pointing to a chair that was next to a mirror. Kai did so, and the man took out a cell phone. Nobody knew what the person on the other end was saying. "You're going to get a signal soon."  
The male friend of 'Raven' said, "Have you found him yet?"  
"Almost," 'Raven' told him, biting her lip in deep concentration.  
Kai looked over into the mirror. It looked cracked or something, so he poked it. Quickly, he pulled his hand back, but the mirror was like... attached to his fingers or something. Kai managed to pulled his hand away, but silvery stuff was still all over his fingers, and spreading. "What the hell is happening?!"  
"Have you got it yet?" the man asked 'Raven'.  
"Not quite," she said, getting frustrated.  
The man put the cell back to his ear. "Any minute now..."  
The silver dye reached to Kai's neck, and was going towards his mouth.  
"Kai!" screamed Hilary, and tried to go forward, but was held back by the boy of the Punishers.  
"Found him!" exclaimed 'Raven'.

**Me**: Hey guys! Hope you liked it! You all know what to do. Ja ne!


	4. The Helm

**Me**: What's up, everyone? Welcome to the fourth chapter of my fanfic!  
**Shi**: Yes, yes, what's up, y'all? Now, Aibou has tried her best to describe things, so bear with us. Those of you who've seen the Matrix, you should know what she's talking about, but if any of you haven't –  
**Bob**: – WATCH IT!   
**Shi**: Shut up, Bob, and do the disclaiming.  
**Bob**: Yeah, yeah. None of us own Beyblade or the Matrix, but we all think it rocks!  
  
Chapter Four  
  
_The Helm  
_  
Kai suddenly jumped up, and then landed flat on his face on the floor. Somewhere off to his right, he heard laughter, and automatically stood up to find that it was Ray. Both were in a small room with two beds on either side. Kai had just fallen out of his, and Ray was seated Indian-style at the foot of his own. Both boys were wearing odd clothing that didn't belong to them – long-sleeved shirts and pants, made of what looked to be wool.  
"Ray – your hair!" exclaimed Kai. Ray's hair had disappeared – it was completely gone – his bangs, his ponytail... But Kai didn't yet realize that the same thing had happened to him. "Your hair's gone!"  
"Ah, look in a mirror, Kai," replied the Chinese boy.  
Kai ran his fingers over his head, which was now bald, and fainted.  
"What a baby," Ray said, and heard a knock on his door. "Who is it?"  
"It's me," replied Kenny's voice. "Can I come in?"  
Ray called out an affirmative answer, and Kenny walked in. He was wearing clothes like the boys were, and he still had hair. Seeing Kai on the floor, Kenny began to laugh. "Yeah," Ray told him. "When he found out his hair was gone, he fainted."  
Kenny shook his head. "Tut, tut... did you freak out when you found out?"  
Ray replied, "Nope. I've been meaning to chop it off anyway."  
"Sure," the younger of the two said, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he went over to Kai. He bent down, and into the unconscious boy's ear yelled, "GET UP!"  
Hiwatari jumped up immediately and almost rang Kenny's neck. "Don't do that again. How come you still have hair?"  
"Because I've been ejected from your world for a year. Now, come with me, we have a meeting to attend. Oh, yeah, and put these on." Kenny tossed each boy a winter-style cap before he led the two teens out of the room and down a metal hallway. "Max and Tyson are already up, and Em's getting Hilary."  
"I wonder how Hilary's going to rea –" Ray began, but was cut off by a loud, high-pitched screech that echoed through the halls. "Guess we found out. Nice knowing you, Kenny." He patted the 16-year-old on the shoulder.  
Kenny nodded. "Max is still mourning the loss of his hair, and Tyson... when Ty found out, he fainted. A minute later, he woke up, felt his head, and fainted again. This process continued for about ten or fifteen minutes, until we managed to convince him he looked better without it."  
Just as they went around a corner, they halted, as the old man blocked their way. His head still seemed to be shaved, but he was wearing a hat like Ray and Kai. "Good morning kids. How'd they take it, Kenny?"  
"Not too bad," replied the boy. "Is everyone else up?"  
He shook his head. "Nah, not everybody. Shall I go and tell the awakened ones to stop stuffing their faces and come greet our guests?"  
"Yeah," replied Chief, as the man walked off. "Let's go see if Tyson and Max are on the verge of blowing up the ship yet."  
Kai questioned, "Ship?"  
He nodded. "The Helm. It's a... hovercraft." They walked along, all silent, until soon they came to a fair-sized room, with two dozen computer chairs – but no computers. Tyson and Max, who'd been in the room waiting, jumped up when they arrived.  
"Ray! Kai! You're here!" said Tyson.  
"My hair... my poor hair... my poor, poor hair..." whined Max.  
Kai looked upset. "Shut up, Max."  
"KENNY!" a voice screamed. All the boys covered their ears as it came closer. "KENNY, YOU LITTLE FRIGGER!"  
They heard laughter coming from several of the halls as the voice came ever closer.  
"I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO TO ME?!"  
"D-e-a-d," Ray spelt to Kenny as a bald (but hatted) Hilary walked into the room. She ran up to Kenny and wrapped her hands around his neck. Kenny calmly took them off, and then she slapped him before Emily managed to drag her away from him.  
"Morning, boys," Emily greeted the Blade Breakers.  
"Good morning," replied both Ray and Max.  
The middle-aged man walked into the room. "I see you're all awake."  
"Where is everyone?" inquired Chief.  
He shrugged. "I went to get them, but it seems they were finished eating. Listen, why don't you and Emily go grab a bite for the kids, and I'll try to explain some stuff to them."  
Emily looked at her friends. "You guys aren't going to die if we leave your sides for a few minutes, are you?"  
They all shook their heads. Kenny and Emily walked out through the door the man had just entered through. "It's good to meet you. Kenny's told us lots about you all. I'm Cire, by the way."  
"So, exactly how many people are one this ship?" Kai inquired.  
"Fifteen – that's including everyone but you guys," replied Cire.  
Hilary looked shock. "Whoa..." she said, dazed. "Is it really a _hovercraft_?"  
"Yes," replied he.  
Kai shook his head in disbelief. "That's impossible. Hovercrafts haven't been invented yet."  
"Really?" asked Cire, resulting in a nod of Kai's head. "Oh, okay. Remind me what year it is again?"  
"Man, even I'm not_ that_ stupid," Tyson stated. "It's the year two thousand."  
The adult leaned his head to the side questioningly. "Huh... gee, and to think I thought it was about the year twenty-two hundred."  
"Well, aren't you stupid," replied Ty. "Why would you think that?"  
A voice broke into the conversation. "Because it is."  
"Who's there?!" exclaimed Kai, looking around. Nobody answered, and Cire was smiling slightly. "What's with you, old fart?"  
He shook his head, as if to say 'nothing'. As he did this, Kenny and Emily returned with a cart, which was equipped with five identical trays of weird- looking food. The children all walked over, and each of the boys grabbed a tray. Hilary, however, latched on to Kenny's arm and started repeating the phrase, "This isn't happening... the isn't happening..."  
Kenny looked down at the girl, shocked. "What did you do?"  
"I think she's still in shock over her hair," the old man suggested. "How bad did they take it, anyway?"  
Emily put in, "Not too bad. Hilary ad Tyson were the worst, but they took it pretty well."  
"Yeah... I guess nobody could have taken it as bad as you two, eh?"  
There was a sudden burst of "You two?", "How did you guys take it?", and "What did you do?", along with some other similar questions.  
"Ah, that's a story for another time," Kenny said, not wanting to relieve the horror of what had happened when Emily and he found out. "So, do you guys believe anything Cire's told you?"  
As the teenagers shrugged their shoulders, Cire addressed Emily and Kenny. "They look like people who believe what they hear because they are expecting to wake up from a dream." Turning towards the others, he continued. "But this is the truth. No matter how unbelievable it sounds, it is true. You must believe us."  
"Whatever," Kai said, grabbing a glass and leaning back in his chair. He didn't seem to believe what Cire was telling them. In fact, no one did. "This is all a load of bullshit anyway."  
"Bullshit?!" Emily freaked. "You think this is all BULLSHIT?!"  
Kai inclined his head several times, slowly. "Yeah, I do."  
"Calm down, Emily. In time, they will understand," Cire told her. He rolled up one of the sleeves of his shirt to his elbow, and showed the assembly something coming out of his arm. There was something black there, and it was going into his arm, almost as if you could stick a needle or something in it. "You see this?" he asked. "Every one of you has it. Many of them, actually, all over your body."  
They each instinctively hauled up their sleeves curiously, and Cire was proven correct. Hilary fainted, as did Tyson, but Kai, however, completely freaked out.  
"What the fuck is this?! What have you people done to us?!" he yelled. He went over to Kenny, grabbed the front of his shirt, lifted him off his feet, and slammed his into a wall. "You son of a bitch, what the fuck is going on?!"  
Emily ran up, grabbed one of Kai's arms, and attempted to haul it away from Kenny. He did take his hand off him, but only to send Emily sailing across the room.  
"Kai, listen to me! Put me down! I do not want to hurt you, all right?" pleaded Kenny.  
Kai shook his head, but his strength began to fail him. He fell back, releasing the boy. On the floor, Hiwatari repeatedly shook his head, placing his hands on his woolen cap in frustration.  
"Emily!" Kenny said, running over to the chair she'd landed in. "Are you okay?"  
She smiled, and nodded. "He's not that strong. And besides, the chairs are nice and soft. Cire, sir, maybe that wasn't sure a good idea."  
"Yeah, I know," the old man said. Then, turning to Ray and Max, he asked, "What do you think now?"  
"I think," Ray said slowly, "that I want to know what the hell this is."  
Cire smiled faintly, and seated Ty in one of the chairs. Emily did the same with Hil, and Kai went over and sat down as well. "You believe it is the year two thousand, when, in fact, it is nearer to the year two thousand two hundred. Nobody knows the exact year."  
Hilary blinked, yawned, and sat back in her seat. Tyson awaken as well, and asked, "What the hell are we talking about?"  
"Shut it, Granger, and listen," Kai ordered. Then, turning to the old man, he asked, "How come nobody knows the exact date?"  
The grown-up smiled. "Because we don't. It's as simple as that. But we know that some time early in the twenty-first century, everyone was united in celebration as we created Artificial Intelligence."  
"AI? Robots?" a shocked Maxie asked.  
Emily nodded. "Yuppers. And this gave way to a total race of machines. No, Tyson, not the kind of machines that make bread or cook lasagna. These machines were evil, and a war began. No one knows who struck first – the humans or them. However, we do know that it was us that seared the sky."  
"'Seared the sky'?" inquired Ray.  
"Yes. If you were to go to the surface and see the sky, it is always covered with blackened clouds, with constant thunder and lightning. We did this because, at that point, they needed solar power to live," Cire explained. "Everybody thought they couldn't survive without a source of energy as opulent as the Sun. And throughout all of human history, we have been dependant on machines, too."  
Kai smiled. "It seems fate goes hand in hand with irony."  
"Yes," Kenny agreed. "Yes indeed. So Kai, you no longer think this bullshit?"  
"Oh, I still think it bull. I just like hearing a good story every now and then," he told them, before continuing in a mock voice. "So, Ken, what happened to those evil machines?"  
The boy Kai had addressed seemed to be frustrated. "Goddamn, Kai, why won't you believe us?!"  
Kai shrugged. "Because it's not possible."  
The adult smiled. "I suppose there is nothing I can say that will make you believe, huh, Kai?"  
"Nope. Nada," replied the boy.  
A small laugh escaped Cire's mouth. "Oh, well. The others will be along soon anyway."  
"Others?" inquired Tyson.  
Emily nodded. "What, did you think we were the only ones on this ship?"  
Granger nodded. "How many more are there?"  
"I think there's twelve... not counting anyone in this room," Kenny told him.  
Making the ones new to the Helm jump, music started blaring through the halls and in most of the rooms. It was 'Charge!' music, and it only played for about thirty seconds before shutting off. It was replaced by a girl's voice. "All right, you lazy bums, get your asses outta bed, quit stuffing your faces, and for God's sake, stop beating the living crap out of each other! Everyone should now go to the meeting room before kill you all! MWAHAHAHAHA!"  
"What the fuck was that?!" Kai spoke.  
Emily smiled. "Oh, that was our Operator."  
"Um, where's the meeting room?" inquired Tyson stupidly. "I'm too beautiful to die!"  
Kenny shook his head. "Idiot... we're in the meeting room. And besides, she's a sweet girl, she wouldn't hurt us... much."  
"...much?" Hilary asked.  
Quiet, echoing laughter began to come from somewhere. Kai and Ray looked around, trying to find the source. They couldn't find it, but it seemed to be getting louder. All of a sudden, an upside-down head came down from the rafters and uttered, "Boo."  
This made Hilary scream and fall back on her butt. Tyson hid behind Max, who was slowly backing away. The other two just looked at it oddly.  
"It... it's human!" Maxie told everyone. And his speculation was true – it was quite a small person, and younger than Daichi, that was hanging by the knees from a rafter in the ceiling. In one quick moment, Kai took hold of the blonde hair that was hanging down, and yanked down the youngster, making the child slam onto the floor. A second later, the tables turned, and Kai's feet were dangling a few inches above the ground, with Cire's hand around his neck.  
"Let him down!" exclaimed Hilary,  
Cire let Kai's feet touch the flooring, and released him before turning around to check on the child. The child – a girl – stood up, and was only about five feet and a couple inches tall. "Hi there," she said brightly, going over to the group. "Sorry if I startled ya. The name's Devi."  
"Nice to meet you," Ray said. "But shouldn't you be playing with dolls or something instead of climbing around? You could hurt yourself, you know."  
"Dolls? Why would I wanna play with dolls?" inquired Devi. "Jeez, I'm thirteen, not two." With that, she went over to one of the chairs and sat down, just as a swarm of people entered the room. In the midst of all this, Cire was talking with Kai.  
"I apologize for what I did," the adult said.  
Kai nodded. "You should. And I'm sorry for getting the runt down."  
Cire smiled. "Good. But if you ever harm any of the people on this ship again, I won't let go."  
As everyone got seated, a girl of about sixteen stood up in front next to the old man. She had black hair stopping level with her chin, and baby blue eyes that demanded respect. Her skin was slightly dark, and she reached about 5'5" in height. "All right, guys, shut up and sit your asses down, as Dee would say!" she yelled. Quickly, the chatter that had come from the swarm of people died down, and they all took a seat.  
"Thank you," Cire said in a pleasant tone. "Everyone, I believe you all know why we're here." The people, save for the newcomers, all nodded in agreement. "Good. Now, these five here in the front were brought in yesterday – as you all know – and are good friends with Kenny and Emily. If you guys would please come here for a moment..."  
Ray, Kai, Max, and Tyson, as well as a shaking Hilary, stood up, walked over to Cire, and faced the crowd. They quickly noticed that all of the people were teenagers. The adult pointed to each one of them individually and announced their name.  
"It's great to meet you," the dark-skinned girl standing in the front said to the new ones, shaking their hands. The boys noticed that when she wasn't shouting, her voice was very soft and sweet, like an angel's. "I'm Omni. I am the Captain of this ship."  
"It is an honor to meet you as well," Max said.  
She smiled. "Thanks." She turned to the seated ones. "Now guys, if you'll all stand up when I call your name, that'll be nice." They nodded, and Omni began to introduce the others on the ship. "That's Strife there –" the girl they'd known as 'Raven' stood up "– and that's Geichu –" the male from the Punishers rose "– and the girl next to him is Kimmy." The third to get up was not someone they'd previously met. "And you've already met Blaze and Dea, although you were introduced to them as Dominique and Nikki –" the two girls rose from their seats "– and I think you may have met Devi as well." The youngest in the room jumped up and landed on Geichu's shoulders. "That there is Cadin, and then KC, next to him is Tochi, and his little brother Phantom."  
"Oh, and I suppose I'm not important enough to introduce, am I?" a voice spoke up, as a girl about the same age as Omni arose.  
Omni shook her head. "I was just about to get to you. That girl is our beloved Operator, Dee. She's been here longer than any of us, except for Cire."  
"Question," Hilary said. "What the hell is an operator?"  
Dee strode forward, towards Cire. "They don't believe it, do they?" she inquired, causing the adult to shake his head. "Should we jack them in? Show 'em the truth?"  
"Yes. I do think that is what we should do," agreed Cire. He faced the crowd and began to speak to them. "All right, meeting adjourned. Everyone get back to whatever you were doing. Kenny, Emily, Omni, Dee, stay here, please."  
Everybody nodded, and some of the people of the exited. "What's going on?" inquired Emily.  
"What do you think?" Dee spoke, her voice dripped with sarcasm. "We're going to show them everything."  
Remembering how Kai had freaked out last time, Kenny asked Cire, "You sure?"  
"Yes. They have to know, Kenny. This is the only way they will believe," the man informed him. Turning to the Blade Breakers, he inquired, "Are you all finished eating?"  
The new ones nodded, kind of worried about what Dee meant by 'jack them in'. Omni motioned for everybody to follow her, which they did, through the steel hallways of the Helm. Pretty soon, the group came to a room laden with many computers, and many chairs, somewhat like the ones you would see in a dentist's office, hooked up to machines. The 'Operator' sat in a normal chair in front of several monitors.  
"Alright, you guys," Omni said. "Sit in one of the chairs, please."  
Slowly, each of the beybladers made their way to a chair, and laid down. Omni and Cire did the same; Emily and Kenny however, made their way to their friends. Emily had gone to Hilary, and Kenny went over to Ray.  
Emily had picked up a device that looked like it would be plugged into something, and Hil immediately jumped up and said, "What the hell are you going to do with that?!"  
"Calm down," said Em as she pushed the girl gently back into the chair. "This will feel a little weird, okay?" With that, she drove the device into the plug on the back of Hilary's neck. The girl freaked out as this happened; her body jumped up, but it was useless, as it then went completely limp, and her eyes closed.  
Tyson, who'd been watching the girls, went nuts at this point. "What the hell?! You just killed her!"  
"No, Tyson," Kenny said reassuringly, and went over to the boy after 'plugging' Ray in. "Just stay calm, and don't fidget. I swear on my Mom's soul that she's alive."  
Ty sighed, nodded, and laid back to let Kenny do what he had to do.  
Emily had gone to see the Captain. "Are you sure you don't want us to come with you? I mean, Kai is totally unpredictable, and Tyson –"  
"Don't worry about it, kid. We can handle ourselves in there. And besides, I've got the old fart with me," replied Omni. Turning to the 'Operator', she added, "Hook us up with the Construct, a'right, Dee?"  
  
**Me**: Just a little side note here on pronunciation of the names. Here we go:   
Cire – _seer   
_Omni – _om_(like in _mom_)-_knee _  
Devi – _deh-V_   
Dee – ... D   
Geichu – _guy-choo_   
Kimmy – _Kimmy   
_Tochi – _toe-chee_   
KC –_ Kay-see_   
Phantom – _fan-tum_   
Cadin – _Kay-din_   
Blaze – _blaze_   
Strife – _strife_   
Dea –_ D-ah_


	5. TVs, Squiddies, and Death Threats

**Me**: Welcome... to the Desert... of the Real.  
  
**Shi**: Ah, quiet, you. She just finished Chapter Five this morning, and she was reading the script of The Matrix a little while ago, so she's right wired off it now. Don't mind her, though.  
  
**Primrose**: Master is really happy, too. She finished a hole chapter in just two days! It usually takes her at least a week.  
  
**Me**: Hey! Shut it, Rosie! With five people in the family, I don't often get a lot of time on the computer. Anyway, you know what to do, Bob.  
  
**Bob**: Aibou doesn't own The Matrix or Beyblade. She does, however, own the Helm and it's crew.  
  
Chapter Five  
  
_TVs, Squiddies, and Death Threats_  
  
When the Blade Breakers arrived in the white oblivion, they were – to say the least – dubious. Cire and Omni appeared to appear out of nowhere, popping up behind them, sitting in armchairs. The beybladers didn't notice them at first, as they were looking off into the distance. It was all white, everywhere... even if they looked down, all they saw was white, there didn't appear to be any solid floor.  
  
"Welcome to the Construct," Cire's voice came, making them jump. The group whirled around and saw the two resting in the comfortable chairs.  
  
Kai, once again, flipped at them. "What the hell is this place?!"  
  
Omni stood up calmly, a slightly hypnotic look on her face. "Has Cire told you about what started the war? The birth of AI?"  
  
Hilary nodded slightly, and asked, "Is it really true?"  
  
"Of course it is," replied the Captain. "Kai, you wanted to know what this place is, right? It is our loading program. A blank slate in which we can come up with anything we want. Guns, clothes, chairs, anything at all."  
  
As usual, The normally quiet Kai was disbelieving. "Nonsense."  
  
"Look at you, Kai. Look at yourself!" shouted the girl. "The plugs on your body have disappeared! Your hair's grown back! You are wearing your normal clothes!"  
  
Looking at each other, the Blade Breakers realized that what Omni was saying was right. "This cannot be real," Ray said. "Either that, or the other place isn't real, because your hair can't grow back in a matter of seconds."  
  
"When you look at yourself now, you are only seeing an image of yourself, you are seeing what you looked like inside the Matrix. That is what we call Residual Self Image – the mental projection of your digital self," Cire explained.  
  
Kai took a deep breath, and looked like he was going to begin shouting again, but Omni beat him to it. "You are going to ask, 'What the fuck is the Matrix', aren't you?"  
  
Hiwatari was taken back. She'd predicted exactly what he was going to say, word for word. "How –?"  
  
"Did I know what you were about to say?" interrupted Captain Omni. He nodded. "Simple, really. You tend to asked the most obvious – yet in a way, the most important – questions. And if you're wondering how I got the wording... you love saying the word 'fuck'. I wonder why..."  
  
"Shut up and answer the goddamn question!" he yelled.  
  
"I think I should explain a word that Ray brought up first," Cire said. "Real. Somebody explain what you think real is."  
  
Hilary, who had always loved answering the teacher's questions, piped up. "Real is everything. It is what you can see, taste, smell, touch, and here."  
  
"If you believe that to be an acceptable answer," said the adult, "then real is only electrical signals interpreted by your brain. And if so, then the Matrix is real."  
  
Tyson then began to whine. "This is confusing. My brain hurts."  
  
"That's because you've never used it before," Hilary whispered to him.  
  
"The Matrix is where you lived. The air you breathed, the food you ate, the television programs you watched, the computers you typed on, the roses you smelt, the songs you heard... everything you thought was real, it was all the Matrix," the ship's captain explained. "And the Matrix is, well, a control to keep us humans in order."  
  
"Where are we now, then?" inquired Ray.  
  
"Right now," said Cire, "we are in our loading program."  
  
Tyson seemed to be putting two and two together. "Are you saying," he slowly began, "that right now... we're in a ... computer program?"  
  
"Yes!" exclaimed Omni delightfully. "Exactly!" Most of the group listened to what she'd just said, and were still not buying it. "Is it really that hard to believe? I mean, look at how advanced you were inside the Matrix. Kenny could do almost anything on his laptop that he wanted. Satellite signals could be sent worldwide so you could get TV program from halfway across the world. Men have gone into space. Now, think about how advanced you people would be several centuries from now."  
  
Kai looked thoughtful for a while, and suddenly began to talk. "If what you are saying is true... if it really is several centuries in the future from when we think it is... if, for the last almost two decades, we have been living in this dream world you call the Matrix... then... what the hell does the world look like now?"  
  
"Why don't you sit down and see for yourself?" Omni asked. They looked at her questioningly, but soon Tyson saw a television.  
  
"TV!" he exclaimed. "Quick! Check if Astro Boy is on!"  
  
Cire shook his head, and turned on the TV. It showed a picture of what looked to be New York City. "This is the world as it was in the year 2000. It exists now only as a control simulation to keep us asleep and in order." He must have pressed a button, because soon it showed a blackened sky with dark buildings. "This is the world as it is today." Once again, the screen changed, now showing them endless rows of tower-like structures that had what looked like pink pods covering them. Spider-like things were crawling from pod to pod. "There are fields, kids, endless fields were humans aren't born, but simply grown. If you remember back to when I gave you all a history lesson this morning, I told you that we blocked out the Sun, right?"  
  
Max nodded. "Right... what does this have to do with the fields?"  
  
"Well," Omni picked up, "these fields provided an endless supply of power. The Harvesters liquefy the dead and feed them to the living. The machines made the Matrix so that we would not wake up."  
  
Kai seemed to be starting to believe some of what these people were saying. "Well, how come there are people outside of the Matrix?"  
  
"You're beginning to believe," Cire said. "You see, there was a man born inside the Matrix. It is said that he could edit the Matrix to be what he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us. And he taught us the truth – 'As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.'"  
  
"So, he's kind of like your God, or Jesus, or something," Ty said.  
  
Slowly, Cire nodded. "I guess, in a way... Anyway, when he died, the Oracle prophesized his return. It is believed that when he returns, he will destroy the Matrix, end the war, and bring freedom to our people."  
  
"Cool," Ty said.

* * *

Throughout the day, the Bladers kept to themselves, and stayed in their rooms. Kenny and Emily brought them food, and went to socialized with their other friends, knowing that the Blade Breakers would want to keep to themselves.  
  
"Jeez, Ken, were they always this uptight?" inquired Dee, as they ate their supper in the mess hall.  
  
Everybody but Cire, Omni, and Strife was there. Two or three people were always one duty, no matter what time it was.  
  
"Well, Kai's always been, and Tyson's just been a goof-off. Hilary was really strict all the time," Kenny told them. "Max and Ray were just neutral, though, ya know?"  
  
Dea nodded. "How do you think they're taking it? Inside, I mean, knowing that their entire lives haven't been real?"  
  
"Honestly, I don't know. I suppose they're still a bit skeptical, believing and yet at the same time, not. They're just wondering how they got themselves messed up in all this," replied the boy. "After I got freed, I remember I was constantly thinking of what would've happened if I had taken the blue pill. I soon realized, though, that if I had taken the blue pill, I would never have felt fulfilled in life."  
  
Emily smiled slightly. "That's deep, Chief. I was still freaking out over my hair at that point. For weeks I felt like strangling somebody." The cafeteria instantly filled with laughter. "What?" she said loudly. "I did!"  
  
"I don't blame you," Blaze said from across the table. "Before I was freed, I had beautiful, flowing, elbow-length hair, a fiery shade of red, and I always kept it down..." She sighed heavily. "But I prefer it shorter now, though. Gets in the way if it's too long." Blaze ran her hand through her hair, which was still red, though only shoulder-length. When she'd been Beyblading the day before, however, it had gone to pretty well to her elbows. "Hey, Dea, what was your hair like?"  
  
Dea thought for a moment, remembering back to before she'd been 'unplugged'. Her hair was basically the same as it had been in the Matrix; dirty blonde, just passed her shoulders, although in the real world she didn't have highlights. "Oh, it used to be pure blonde... Hey shut up, guys!"  
  
Three of the boys had started snickering, because of her history as a blonde. "Sorry," they muttered.  
  
"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted, I was a blonde. My parents always put my hair in braids, two braids. I despised it! Never told her, though... never did... If there's one thing I regret, it's not being truthful with them."  
  
"Jesus, the one thing I regret is just disappearing, and then not letting my friends know I'm okay. They were worried sick. Still are, I think," replied Emily  
  
Kenny said, "Me too. I'm curious about why my idiot friends didn't think of looking at my laptop sooner, though."  
  
"So I'm an idiot now?" a voice came from the doorway. Everyone jumped at the sound of the voice, and when they turned around, Kai was standing there, with Ray along side him.  
  
"That's not what I meant!" Kenny said in an exasperated voice.  
  
Ray smiled slightly. "What did you mean, then, Chief?"  
  
"Well, you guys should've known to check my laptop. I spent hours on that thing!" he replied. "And the odd thing is, Tyson is the one that thought of it..."  
  
Just as Emily opened her mouth to speak, the lights shut off.  
  
"Hey, what's the deal?!" Kai nearly yelled.  
  
In the distance, they heard Hilary scream. "Shit," Emily's voice said. "Holy shit. I'll go get Hil. Kenny, go get Max and Tyson."  
  
"Right," Kenny said, and Kai and Ray felt them pass.  
  
"What the hell is going on?!" questioned Kai.  
  
Several more people rushed passed. "You talk too fucking much, you know that?" Blaze's voice came. "Phantom, Tochi, Geichu, lead them to the cockpit. We'll go on up ahead."  
  
"Alright," agreed Geichu. "This way, guys."  
  
Omni and Cire were sitting in the drivers' seats when everyone got there. On a small blue pad between the two, a hologram came up, showing two weird- looking squid-like things.  
  
"What the hell are they?" inquired Kai in a normal voice.  
  
"Squiddies," Kenny replied. "Sentinels. Machines designed for one mission."  
  
In the darkness, the Captain smiled. "Search and destroy." Then, talking into her headset, she whispered, "Is the EMP fully charged?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am," replied the quiet voice of Strife. "Whenever you're ready."  
  
"EMP?" wondered Max aloud.  
  
Emily replied, "Electromagnetic pulse. Shuts down anything within the blast radius. It's the only defense we've got."  
  
"Shhhhhh..." soothed Omni. Looking out the window, two large machines identical to the holographic 'Squiddies' came into view. They halted, and looked around. The arm of one change into what looked like a satellite dish. Then both of them went off. The cockpit filled with sighs of relief as Omni said to Strife, "They're gone."  
  
On cue, the lights flickered back to life. "You're not lying about all this," came Hilary's voice. "It's all true..."  
  
"Where the hell are we?" inquired Tyson.  
  
As people began to file out, Omni said, "As you probably well know, there used to be huge cities that took up hundreds of miles. They were destroyed. These old service and waste systems are all that's left." Seeing the puzzled look of Tyson's face, she added, "They're sewers, kiddo."  
  
"Eww..." was his reply. "Why did you shut off the lights anyway?"  
  
Emily shook her head. "Idiot. It was so we could charge the EMP."  
  
"EMP?" inquired Tyson stupidly.  
  
At this point, Dee, who'd taken Cire's place when he left with the others, snapped. "You idiot, haven't you been listening to a single word we've said?!"  
  
"Jeez, I'm sorry, calm down," Tyson said.  
  
Kenny, sensing trouble, suggested, "Why don't back to the cafeteria and chat with the others?"  
  
The group agreed, and everyone but Omni went back to the cafeteria. Everybody else was there, except for Strife.  
  
"So, did you guys have _family _back there?" inquired Blaze to the new recruits.  
  
Tyson was stumped. "Back where?"  
  
"In the Matrix," replied a frustrated Emily.  
  
They each nodded. Tyson said, "I lived with my Grandpa, and I saw my Dad every now and then."  
  
"I lived with the Elders when I was younger, but I left them to go exploring," Ray told them.  
  
Kai said ashamedly, "I lived with my Grandfather Voltaire when I was younger, but he's in prison now."  
  
"My mom and Dad are separated, and I live with my father, but I see my Mom pretty often," said Max.  
  
Hilary just sat there, staring at one of the walls.  
  
A couple of the guys got up to leave. Just as they went through the entryway, Tyson ran up to them.  
  
"What do you want?" one of them asked. He was about 5'7", and had cinnamon hair that was slicked back. Thinking back, Tyson realized this boy was KC.  
  
"So, what's it like being shacked up with all these girls?" Ty asked them.  
  
KC looked slightly befuddled. "What do you mean?"  
  
"I mean, like, um, did you ever get to second base with any of them?"  
  
In a split second, Tyson was pinned to the wall, his feet several inches above the floor, with KC's hand around his neck. "If you or you friends ever," he spat, "harm or make a move on any of these girls, we will not hesitate to beat you, cut you, or break your bones. We will cut off your fingers, then your toes, then your limbs, one by one, and then, we will cut out your foul tongue. Is that clear?"  
  
At first, Tyson thought they were only fooling around, but noticing the serious look on the boys' faces, he loudly gulped. "Clear as crystal."

* * *

**  
Me**: How did you like it? Why not review it? Ask any questions, give me suggestions, or just comment. Anyway, I'm working really hard on Chapter Six, and I hope to get it up by this weekend, alrighty? No promises, though... 


	6. Matrix Combat

**Me**: Hey, peeps. Well, what can I say... this is chapter six. I've slaved over it for a while, and I kept getting stuck... It's fairly long, longer than most of the chapters I've written, at least. I'll try to get chapter seven up before school starts...

**Shi**: You can't really blame her for being sooooooo long without posting. You see, she keeps getting these cursed writers blocks, and she was on vacation for three and a half weeks.

**Primrose**: Wow...

**Everyone**: Wha?

**Prim**: She defended our Lady.

**Shi**: So, what of it?

**Primrose**: in a teasing voice Shi cares about Ginny, Shi cares about Ginny...

**Shi**: Shut it!

**Bob**: Anyway, none of these crazy people own Beyblade or the Matrix, but Gin owns the Helm and its crew.

**Me**: Enjoy!

Chapter Six  
_  
Matrix Combat_

"Alright, you lazy asses! Get up outta bed!" was the first sound of the morning for most of the Helm's crew. Dee's voice echoed through the halls, awakening all but Tyson, who's continuos snoring had kept Max up for the better part of the night anyway.

A knock on the door about five minutes later pried the sleep deprived boy out of bed. "Who is it and what do you want?" he said, leaning on the entrance.

"Wake up patrol," came Kenny's voice. "Is he awake?"

Max went over to Tyson and started poking him in the cheek. "Nope!"

The door opened, and Kenny entered, holding a steel pot and a wooden spoon. "You may want to cover your ears," advised Chief. Max took this advice. The younger of the two whacked the pot with the spoon twice, and then paused.

Tyson was shaking from the vibrations of the sound, shaking so much that he fell out of his bed. Once he escaped the bed sheets he was entangled in, he absent-mindedly proceeded to lie back on his bed, grumbling something that sounded like, "Five more minutes, Gramps."

"Oh no, not this morning," replied Kenny, as both he and Max grabbed one of his hands and hauled him off the bed. But it did not stop there. They dragged him into the hall, and the crew members exiting their quarters all cracked up as they passed. Soon, the group was in the mess hall, and they stopped.

Ray, who was having his breakfast like some of the others, said, "You're finally up, I see."

"Shut up," was the simple reply from the grouchy Ty.

The remainder of the crew entered then. KC, who was just getting off duty, was serving everyone. When he came over to give Tyson his breakfast, he said, "Don't forget what we talked about yesterday."

"So, did you guys sleep well last night?" asked Emily to the Bladers.

Max yawned. "Tyson slept like a log... but his snoring kept me up..."

"Don't worry about it, Maxie, I promise you'll all get a very good night's sleep tonight, regardless of Tyson's snoring," Kenny said. "I was on duty for a bit last night, and when I got to bed, not even Tyson's snoring from the room next to me could keep me up."

Emily started laughing. "Yeah, when I came on duty a few hours ago, you were about to fall over. But honestly, Hil would not shut up last night. She kept asking questions. Rather annoying."

"Well, you said you didn't mind answering my questions!" Hilary snapped.

A heavy sigh came from Em. "No, I said – and I quote – 'I won't mind answering a _few_ questions'. A few, girl!"

"Sorry," replied the girl. "Kenny, why do you think we'll get a good night's sleep tonight?"

Dee, who was sitting next to Chief and had been listening to their conversation, grinned. "Because, today's combat training."

"Combat... training?" inquired Hilary.

"Yes, combat training. We've got to make sure you can handle yourself against the police and groups like that," Dee replied. "It can be a bit harsh, depending on the person."

"Kenny!" Hilary nearly shouted, making everybody in the room stare. "Does this mean that you've been in police fights and chases?! How could you do that?! You were always a good kid, Chief!"

"Hey, don't diss the Chief," said Emily. "He is a good kid. It's just that now he knows who the right enemy is, and he's fighting to protect people. The right people. He's fighting for what he now knows is right."

Kai shook his head. "Why do we need combat training, anyway? I mean, Max and Hilary might need it, but Ray and I – and even Tyson – can take care of ourselves."

"Jeez, boy, Devi could kick your butt in her sleep," said Captain Omni, who was sitting next to Kenny.

Everyone glanced over at the little one, who was hanging upside down from the lights and was somehow eating her breakfast.

"That monstrosity?" Kai inquired in a mock voice. "Man, I could kick your ass any day of the week, Cappy."

"You don't think you need combat training?" the captain asked. "Well then, after the others are finished with it, we'll put your skill to the test."

"Alright," Kai accepted.

Devi jumped onto the table. "Alright, peeps, get the heck outta here and go about your daily business!"

"That's our warning," replied the Operator. "Come on, kiddies, let's go!"

The crew began exiting the cafeteria, and the bladers made sure to keep close to Ken and Emily. They, as well as Dee and Omni, walked at a leisurely pace through the twisting halls of the hovercraft, and soon came to the core.

"Who wants to learn how to kick ass?" inquired the Operator.

Max slowly and cautiously made his way over to one of the chairs, and Emily drove the plug thing into his head.

"Alrighty," said Dee. "We're supposed to do these operational programs first, but they're major boring shit. So, I'm gonna show you how to fight, kiddo! What do you want first? Kung Fu? Jujitsu? Drunken Boxing?"

"You can't learn something like Kung Fu in a matter of hours!" exclaimed Tyson. "Martial Arts like that take years to perfect!"

Dee replied, "He's not going to learn it in a matter of hours. It'll only take a few seconds. So, what'll it be?"

"Can you teach me Tai Chi?" asked Max.

The Operator said, "Sure thang. Hold on to your breakfast, kiddo, 'cause this can be pretty intense." She put a floppy disk into the computer and typed something on her keyboard.

Max's body tensed up for a moment, and then relaxed. Max gasped for air, and drew in several breaths before saying simply, "Whoa!"

"Hehehe," she said. All of the crew knew that combat training could cause quite a rush. "'Hey Mikey, I think he likes it!' What some more?"

"Oh yeah!" the blonde proclaimed.

This process continued many times for about half an hour straight. He was pretty tuckered out when the thirty minutes were up, so Dee decided to let him rest. "You did okay, I guess," she told him, as Emily helped the exhausted boy up. "Not that good, but not that bad. So, who's next?"

The group spent the rest of the morning at this – although only two people actually took the training, Max and Hilary. When they went off for lunch, the two were halfway dead. As they entered the lunchroom, only a few besides them were there – KC, who was on lunch duty, Strife, and Cire.

"Yo, where's everyone else?" inquired Dee.

"Omni and Dea are in the cockpit," the chef told them as he served the group, "Phantom and Tochi are beating each other up, Kim's taking a nap, Blaze and Geichu are on duty somewhere, and I think Cadin and Devi are down in the medical room."

Curiously, Emily asked, "Is Devi okay?"

"Should be," replied KC, sitting down to his own lunch. "Came in here maybe twenty minutes ago, when Cay was eating, whining about a headache or something."

"Oh, okay," Emily said.

Hilary looked confused about something. "Why did you automatically assume that Devi was the one who needed medical attention?"

"Because," Kenny explained, "Devi don't know nothing about medicinal stuff. There's three trained medics on the Helm, you see. One's Cire, of course, and he trained Cadin and Geichu. Of course, everyone else knows little bits of stuff, but they're the main people to go to."

"Oh," was the reply.

"So, how are you guys finding your training?" inquired Strife, trying to strike up a conversation.

Max stopped stuffing his face for a moment to reply. "It's a bit intense, and it gives quite a rush."

"Yeah, it does," agreed Hilary.

"Too bad Tyson, Ray, and Kai are being pig-headed idiots, though. They think they don't need it, think they're super strong or something... Kai even said he could beat Devi and Captain," Dee put in.

"You're kidding, right?" Strife said. When Kai shook his head, the girl began to laugh. "You think you can beat Captain Omni?" Kai nodded affirmatively. "Idiot! How the hell do you think you can beat anybody on this ship without training?"

Dee smiled. "There's gonna be some sparring this afternoon. It's gonna be fun."

* * *

"Alrighty," Dee said as the new crewmembers, as well as Kenny, Emily, Cire, and Omni, filed into the core. "It's tournament time!"

"Tournament?" inquired Ty.

Kenny and Emily went to all of the Blade Breakers and plugged them in before doing the same thing to Cire and Omni.

The crowd ended up in a Dojo. Everybody was wearing loose white clothing. "This is our sparring program, very similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix. And, like the Matrix, it is a system built on rules," explained Cire.

"Rules? What kind of rules? Tyson wondered aloud.

Omni began, "Rules like gravity, child. You know, whatever goes up must come down? But what you have to get about these 'rules' is that they are no different than a computer program. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken."

"Are you saying that we can defy gravity?" asked Hilary.

"For a short while, yes," Cire told them, before turning to the captain. "Demonstrate."

She nodded, and ran headlong towards the wall. But she did not stop when the wall came. Her feet continued the dash, only they ran up the wall, and then she was upside down, speeding across the ceiling. She ran down the wall opposite the one she'd started with, and returned to her spot.

"Holy fuck!" exclaimed Tyson. "How did you do that?"

* * *

Outside of the sparring program, Kenny and Emily were watching the fight from the monitors. Dee pressed a button, spoke in an announcing voice, "Would everyone please make their way to the core! The starting match of this afternoon's sparring tournament will begin shortly!" Then, talking into her headset, she said, "Yo, Cap'n, who's going first?"

* * *

"Who would like to go first? Whoever does, you will be fighting one of the crewmembers aboard the Helm," Omni told them.

Glancing at each other, they realized none of them really wanted to begin. Finally, heaving a heavy sigh, Max stood up.

"Cool! Max'll be going first, then," announced Captain Omni excitedly.

* * *

The Operator heard this statement and reported it over the intercom, adding, "Anybody who wants to fight Max, please report to the core."

Soon, most of the crew was there anyway, but Phantom decided to face him. Emily jacked him in, and as she did, she requested, "Go easy on him, would you?"

* * *

Phantom then arrived in the Dojo, situated next to Omni. He was about Chief's age, but a little taller, around 5'7". He had golden brown hair that was hauled back in a tight, short ponytail. "Hello," he said to the group. "I'm Phantom, in case you didn't remember. I'm Max's opponent."

"Good," Omni said, leading the boys to the middle of the room. Then she, like everyone else, went to one said, giving the boys plenty of space to beat each other up.

"Bow, and begin," ordered Cire.

The two boys bowed to each other, and the fight began. No matter how hard or how fast Max punched, kicked, or tried to attack the boy, Phantom was not hit. He seemed to be untouchable – a 'phantom', so to speak.

"Goddamn he's fast!" Tyson exclaimed. "How can he do that? It's impossible!"

* * *

"Jesus, Phantom's not even trying," said Dee to the others. "How are we supposed to toughen these kids up if we don't try?"

"Who knows," KC replied. "By the way, I'll be taking on Tyson, if that's no trouble."

She nodded. "None at all. Man, the kid's only had a little training, though, so you can't blame Phantom for going easy... and I expect that Emily asked it of him." The Operator shot a meaningful look over the Em, who'd glanced up from watching the fight when she'd heard herself mentioned.

"What did I do?"

"Did you ask Phantom to go easy on the kid?" inquired KC, as he leaned on the back of Dee's chair, looking over her head to watch the brawl.

Emily looked at the two for a minute, blushing slightly, and simply replied, "How'd you know?"

"Jeez, Em, how could we not?" asked Tochi, who was standing next to her. "Phantom loves sparring, and he's pretty damn good at it as well. He'd probably ask an agent to beat the living hell out of him just for the pure enjoyment of it."

* * *

The Blade Breakers were watching the fight in awe, mouths hanging far more that was appropriate, as Max tried his best. Cire was nodding every now and then, and Omni was shaking her head in disappointment.

"Jesus Christ, Phantom, what are you waiting for?!" she yelled out suddenly. "Show him how tough you are!"

This seemed to confirm something to the boy, who – if you could notice – nodded slightly and said in a loud, clear voice to the blonde, "You ready to see what I'm made of, boy?"

But Max didn't have time to answer before the younger boy punched him hard in the chest, sending him hard into one of the dojo walls. Hilary let out a squeal of pain for her comrade, and immediately ran over to his side. "Maxie! Maxie, are you okay?"

"Ouch..." he said simply.

"You evil little son of a –" Hilary yelled, getting up and turning to Phantom, but was cut short by Omni.

"I would watch your tongue, if I were you," she interrupted. "Nobody on this ship – except for Cire, of course – takes kindly to mentions of their parents. And considering what Phantom here did to the blonde, I wouldn't push it, babe."

The older of the two girls stayed silent as she helped Max to his feet.

Dee's voice suddenly broke the silence, coming from somewhere near the ceiling. "And after Round One, the Home team leads the Newcomers 1 to nothing! Who will participate in Round Two? Join me after these messages to find out!"

* * *

"So who's fighting Hilary?" Dee inquired to the group.

All went silent, except for Devi, who was shouting random things into Dee's headset. After a moment, Emily nodded to the operator. Kenny walked her over to one of the chairs, as Tochi was unplugging his little brother. KC entered the room, and went over to Emily, relieving Kenny of the task. "Promise me, Em, that you won't go easy on her."

Emily blinked, then looked into KC's eyes. "Okay."

* * *

"And welcome back, everybody!" came Dee's voice as Emily appeared in the dojo next to Kai, leaning her elbow on his shoulder. "Round Two will consist of the Newcomers' Hilary versus the Homies' Emily! Ladies, llllllllllet's get ready to RUMBLE!"

There was a slight pause, followed by a deafening smack and a yelled of "Owie!" in Dee's voice. "I'm gonna kill you KC! He smacked me upside the head..."

Everyone in the sparring program cracked up, and slight laughter could be heard coming from the ship, along with the sound of running feet as Dee chased KC through the halls, threatening to whack him with her Operators' Manual.

"Anyway..." said Cire in an offhand sort of way. "Shall we get down to business?"

Emily nodded, and took Hilary by the hand, leading her to the center of the room. Standing about two feet apart, the two girls faced each other and bowed deeply. "Hil," Emily whispered to her opponent, whose ears perked slightly, "I'm not going to go soft on you, so be on your guard. This is only your first match, I know, but I want to show you what you can be like after you get the rest of your training done." Hilary nodded.

"Alrighty, everyone ready?" the young Operator's voice came from the Heavens, though she sounded a bit out of breath. "3 – 2 – 1 – BEGIN!"

The girls attacked each other at the same second – Hilary's fist missed the side of face by about six inches, while Emily, who had slid sideways to avoid being hit, made her foot kick the other girl forcefully in the side, causing her to fall sideways onto the floor with a yelp of pain. However, unlike Max, she managed to get back up and continue the fight. She knew this time that Emily had not be kidding, and would not that it easy on her. With a smile, Emily began pounding the shit out of Hilary, who just kept wincing in pain and did not get a chance to fight back. Finally, Emily was about to punch Hil like Phantom had done to Max, but –

"Enough!" Omni yelled. Emily stood straight at once, and faced her captain. "Help her up, Em."

The addressed girl did this quickly, and Hilary managed – with a little help from Emily – to stand up straight, and then bow without falling over.

"I'm proud of you, Emily. You gave her a good match. But you almost took it too far. You should know better than that," the old man told her.

Emily nodded. "Yes, sir, I'll remember that next time."

"But never forget –" KC's voice came from the ship, only to be interrupted by Emily.

"That if I ever get in a situation with a program or a person who is still jacked in, to give full power. But if an agent is present, run like hell."

Both Cire and Omni smiled, and they heard Dee's voice in the distance, shouting, "KC, you little frigger, give me my headset back or I'll kill you, I swear!"

After a few minutes of hearing random death threats, swear words, and something that sounded as though Dee was slapping KC, the announcer's voice came again. "And with Round Two complete, we find our champions retaining the lead, bringing the score to 2 to nothing!"

Then suddenly, making Omni, Cire, and Emily laugh, a giant scoreboard appeared on one of the walls. It read Champion Home Team on one side, and Crappy Newcomers on the other. There was a large number '2' under the first one, and the words 'The Big Bubkis, Nada, Big Fat Zero' under the second team.

"Nice board!" Omni shouted.

"Thanks, Cappy! Anyways, join me again after these messages to see who will be competing in Round Three."

* * *

As KC unplugged Emily on board the Helm, he kissed her on the forehead and said, "Good work."

"No problem. She's a whiny brat most of the time anyway, I guess I was kind of venting my frustration," replied the girl. Then, turning to the Operator, she said, "I think Ray wants to have a go at someone."

Dea's ears perked up at this moment. "He's the hot Chinese dude, right?"

"Oh, shut up," replied Em. "He's a pretty damn skilled fighter, even though he didn't take the training. So, who'll be facing him?"

Everybody looked at each other, until Cadin stepped forward.

"Cay?" Kenny wondered. Cadin didn't usually take part in sparring practice.

She smiled. "Don't got anything better to do now, not until after training, at least. Hey, and like Dea said – 'He's the hot Chinese dude'."

A few of them laughed, but Kenny and Emily shook their heads. Geichu walked with Cadin over to one of the chairs, but before she sat down, she looked over at the youngest of the crew, who was taking into the headset. "Dev, hun, doing that stuff can't be good for your headaches."

As the girl lay down in the chair that Emily had been occupying a few minutes ago, Geichu whispered to her, "Cay, can you let them win one, just for the hell of it? I mean, losing like they are can't be good for their self-esteem. You know what it's like, going down that road, don't you?"

She nodded.

* * *

"So it'll be you then?" Cire asked as the female medic appeared out of thin air at his side.

Mere seconds after she nodded and Devi's voice faded away, Dee began announcing again. "And welcome back to today's third match. Our contenders now are the Champ's leading female practitioner, Cadin, versus the Newcomer's hot'n'sexy Chinese God, Ray." Above the laughter in the dojo, they could hear muffled giggles coming from the Helm. "What?" she asked stupidly. "KC, if you come near me, I've got my Manual!"

Cay smiled, knowing how much everyone one the hovercraft – save for Dee, of course – despised that wretched manual. Her short, strawberry blonde hair framed her pretty, blue-eyed face well, and although she was only about 5'4", a few inches shorter than Ray, and not near as strong looking, Ray knew that if she was anything like the other crew members, he was going to have to do something awesome.

Cadin walked over to Omni for a moment and whispered something in her ear before joining Ray in the center of the room. She flashed a smile in his direction.

He returned it, weakly.

"Don't worry, Ray, you can kick her butt!" Tyson yelled out.

Dee's voice began to count down, and within seconds, the two began to fight. Cadin was obviously slacking off, but the Blade Breakers were oblivious to this. They probably didn't notice the fact that Ray, who had no training whatsoever, could never beat anybody on the crew, because they were all (even Kai) cheering for their teammate.

* * *

"This is boring," Devi said from her spot on Geichu's shoulders. "Why ain't she fighting?"

They all looked at Geichu, who let a guilty look slip across his face. "I figured that if she let him win, at least they will have some self-esteem left."

"Jeez, first Phantom, then Cadin... at least I know that KC and Omni won't go easy on their opponents," Dee said. "Strife, Blaze, will you go check if there's anything in the perimeter?"

The two girls nodded, and ran off. Most of the others left too, leaving Dee, Kenny, and Emily to watch the predictable fight. "So Cadin will purposefully lose to the hot Chinese dude, KC'll kick Tyson's ass in a matter of seconds, and then Omni will give Kai a lesson in combat... that's what's going to happen, right?"

"Right on, Emily," Ken replied.

* * *

In the dojo, that is exactly what happened. Cadin and Ray finished up the fight, Cay having let her foe take a fair few good blows at her, and then KC wiped the floor with Tyson, giving only a couple forceful hits before Granger fell. Now Omni was standing in the middle of the room, waiting for Kai, who was currently being used as a pillow by Hilary.

* * *

On the ship, Emily, Kenny, and Dee were surprised the Sentinels weren't charging towards them at that moment as all the crew noisily bolted to the core to see the fight.

* * *

Kai finally made it to the center of the room, and he and his adversary bowed. "Hit me, Kai, if you can," she said simply. He nodded, and with all his energy began throwing his fists and feet in her directing, either missing completely, coming up short, or being blocked. She grinned slightly as she kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him into one of the walls.

As he sat on the floor, panting, Omni walked over to him. "Yo, kid, how did I win?"

"You... you're way too fast," he panted.

She smiled. "Do you think that my being faster or stronger than you has anything to do with my muscles in this place?"

Kai shrugged, looking slightly confused.

"Again."

The boy stood up, but once again, every attempt to hit her failed. The rest of the Blade Breakers watched in shock as their teammate tried his best to strike his foe. Using her arms only and never moving her feet, Omni managed to block every one of Kai's attempted kicks and punches, until she lifted her foot off the ground and kicked him in the side of the head, sending him towards Cire, who caught the boy with ease, and put him on his feet.

"Do you not understand yet, Kai?" asked the Captain, leaning her face towards him. "Do you not realize what I am trying to teach you?"

When he didn't answer for nearly a minute and everyone else remained quiet when she glanced over to them, she commanded up to the ceiling, "Load the Jump program, Dee!"

"Your word, Captain, my Captain, is my world, my job, my life's purpose, colon, double backslash, execute, command, and load," came the young Operator's voice.

Suddenly, the dojo disappeared, and they were speeding down through the sky towards a building roof, although it felt to them as though they were still standing on solid ground. Hilary latched on to Tyson, who latched on to Ray. Everybody landed and, seeing where Omni and Cire were directing their eyes, looked across the alleyway to another rooftop. The alley must have been twenty or thirty feet wide.

"I have been trying to teach you, Kai," said Omni, continuing her and Kai's conversation as though nothing had happened, "to free your mind."

She nodded to Cire, who began to run towards the edge of the roof in the direction of the other building. Hilary shouted after him to stop and not get himself killed, but the old man only ran faster, and jumped –

"No!" yelled Hil, to no avail.

Then, somehow, he landed, safe and sound, on the roof opposite them. He motioned for someone to follow him.

"You have to understand, mes amis, that it is all a state of mind – fear, doubt, and disbelief – and must be let go," explained Omni. "The only way you can make it from here to where Cire is, is to free your mind."

Hilary, who was shaking excessively, slowly made her way over to the edge of the roof and looked downward, letting out a barely audible shriek and falling backwards onto her bottom as she did. "That's gotta be at least fifty feet!"

Omni nodded. "More than that, actually. Around seventy or eighty, I think."

"But if we don't make the jump, we'll _die_!" exclaimed the older girl. "Nobody can survive a fall like that!"

The captain shook her head. "You won't die, trust me." Noticing the doubtful looks on the beybladers' faces, she added, "Listen, if any one of you doesn't live through it, I will provide you with a shotgun each and let you shoot me to death."

"Captain Omni, supper's ready!" came the Operator's voice suddenly, making Hilary jump. "Can you hurry it up, please? I'm getting pretty hungry!"

Omni heaved a heavy sigh. "Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Hey, why don't you all take the leap at the same time?"

They nodded, and each stood about twenty feet away from the edge of the rooftop, facing Cire. Each of the Blade Breakers had about five feet between them, and were all muttering things like, "Alrighty then," "Okey dokey," and "Free my mind..."

A gunshot went of and the five of them ran like hell towards the roof's boundary. Hilary never even got two feet off went she began to vertically plummet towards the pavement below. Max and Tyson got about five feet out before mimicking her, and Kai got about eight feet away before doing the same thing. Ray, however, got more than ten feet, too both Omni and Cire's surprise, and when he fell he still had some of that forward momentum going, and landed about halfway between the duo of buildings. When each of the teenagers plummeted towards the ground, they were going so fast that they went into the pavement about five or six feet and then were slung out again, going nearly ten feet in the air, before finally – painfully – landing on the ground.

* * *

"Holy fuck," Omni said when Dee unplugged her. "Did you see how far Ray went?"

"Ah, he's Chinese," replied the Operator. "You've seen those funky movies with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in them... Chinese people can fly."

Cire, Omni, and Dee went around then, unplugging the bladers. When Kai was awoken, he gagged for a moment before spitting up a tiny bit of blood. "What the...! I thought it wasn't s'posed ta be real."

"And that's why I was trying to teach you to free your mind, you simpleton. It's all up here," explained the Captain, pointing to her forehead. "Now, go have some supper and try and get some rest."

* * *

**Me**: So, what did you think? Review and tell me, alrighty? And if you got any questions, feel free to ask. I'm working on Chapter Seven, so it should be up in the next week, and if not, before September 7th... buh-byes! -


	7. Driving Lessons

**Me**: Hello people. How are you? This is the second chapter I've posted today, it's amazing, and I'm already started on Chapter Eight. 

**Shi**: She bought the Matrix movies when she was on vacation, so now she's completely hooked. And she wants to get a lot up before school starts.

**Me**: hisses Don't say the evil 's'-word!  
  
**Shi**: Sorry... she's been reading a lot of Matrix-oriented fics, too.

**Me**: What? Rolands Shifter has awesome Matrix fics... I love them... Anyway, take it away, Bob!

**Bob**: Elven-Princess Ginny don't own Matrix or Beyblade, but she owns the Helm and it's crew, so DON'T STEAL THEM!!!!!!! R&R!

Chapter Seven

_Driving Lessons _

Over the next couple of days, the Blade Breakers took a fair amount of combat training – Kai, Ray, and even Tyson joined in the fun. Once a day some of the crewmembers would test them out and see how they were doing by going into the dojo and sparring with them. The beybladers soon learned the 'rules' that were possible to wiggle around in the Matrix, although so far they had not been allowed to enter it.

As Ray sat up deep into the night one evening, he remembered back to the Jump program he and his friends had participated in three days ago, wondering how he had gotten so far, seeing as how the others had only gotten about half as far as he. How was it possible, he asked himself as he heard voices discussing something in the room next to his. One of them he recognized as Kenny, and another as Emily. There were two others, but Ray wasn't sure whom they belonged to.

He got up and left his room, leaving the sleeping Kai by himself. Walking through the now near-familiar halls, he saw himself making his way towards the core. It was to his surprise that he saw nobody sitting in the spot that, most of the daytime, was occupied by Dee. Ray was about to pass by the room to head up to the cockpit to see who was there when, in the corner of his eye, he saw something move over by the chair that people used when they entered the Matrix.

Ray cautiously approached it, and saw that Omni lay there, looking as though she was unconscious. A rush of worry swept over him, and he darted over to the Operating chair. He looked at each of the monitor screens in turn, watching as odd green symbols moved around them. Not entirely sure of what he was actually doing, Ray let his fingers move hastily over the keyboard, as if he had been doing this all his life. Something somewhere near him clicked, and he looked around, confused. And then –

"What in the One's name?!" a female's voice came.

Ray jumped a foot in the air – if he had jumped any higher, though, he would have come in contact with the source of the disturbance. Looking up, he came face to face with Devi, who was looking at him as you would look at criminal who had gotten out of jail only to break the law again.

"Devi! What are you doing here?" asked Ray, as though she were the disobedient one.

She folded her arms across her chest. "Seems I should be asking you that."

"I, if you want to know, was taking a little nighttime walk," replied he.

Devi jumped down, did some sort of a flip, and landed next to him, with her arms still crossed. "Oh, and you just decided that you would come over here, disturb ME, start typing – which you know is off limits – _and_ sit in Dee's favorite chair? You're digging a damn deep grave for yourself."

"Well, first of all, I didn't know you were there, because I thought you would be in bed," he began to explain, and then she cut it.

"Um, Ray? Most of the time, I sleep up in the rafters," she informed him.

He looked like he'd just been told that one plus one equaled two. "Oh," was the reply, and then he remembered what he'd been saying. "And just so you know, the only reason I was sitting in that chair and typing was because Omni is plugged in and I wanted to make sure that your 'beloved captain' was okay!" he told her furiously, trying to keep his voice down.

Devi stood there, a mix of shock, anger, and mild respect coursing through her. "Get up," she barely managed to say. He didn't move. "Get the hell up, Ray. You don't want me to wake the others."

Ray stared at her for a moment, and then got out of the chair to let the child jump in. He only noticed then that she wore the headset normally sported by Dee. Examining things from behind the chair, he wondered how he could have not seen the headset cord that went from one of the monitors up to what would have previously been the rafters.

"Me and her were chatting a bit a while ago. She told me she needed to jack in for a bit. I told her I would take care of things back here until she came back," explained Devi. "And now – oh shit."

Although Ray never saw anything, Devi must have seen something in the green characters on the screen. She began typing at lightning speed, and then, in a rushed voice, talked into the headset. "Omni, get yourself the hell away from there, now. I've just seen an agent, ma'am. Yes, I'm damn well sure of it. Get your butt to Wells and Lake this instant."

For the next minute or so, Devi's hands never stopped moving, and she kept saying things like 'Hurry your ass up' and 'Start burning rubber, now' to the Captain. Devi didn't look overly worried, only slightly.

"What's an agent?" inquired Ray.

The child looked curiously at him for a moment. "You'll find out soon enough. All I can tell you is that they are the toughest enemy you will ever face in the Matrix, and that nobody has ever beaten one."

Pretty soon, Devi took off the headset and rushed over to her Captain, who was awake but still plugged in until the youngest teen got to her. "Holy shit," Omni voiced. "That one was damn fast."

"I apologize, Captain. I... I should have seen it sooner. It's my fault that it found out where you were. I wasn't playing close enough attention," said Devi guiltily.

The older girl looked at her curiously. "Don't sweat it, kiddo. I'm all right. Nothing to worry about."

"No, Omni. There is something to worry about. If I hadn't have jumped down from the rafters when I heard Ray, I wouldn't have seen it, and... and you could be dead right now."

The Helm's Captain examined the young child. "You've kept the headset on, right?" When Devi nodded, she continued. "Well, when I saw the agent, I would've called you for and exit, and I wouldn't be dead."

"Yes, I know that, but by the time you saw it, you could've been dead already!" yelled Devi before she ran off.

Omni called after her, but it was no use. She turned to Ray, who was standing there as though he shouldn't be there. "Ray... what are you doing up this late?"

"Oh, I, uh, couldn't sleep, and I decided to go for a walk," he replied. She nodded. "What were you doing in the Matrix?"

For a moment, she just looked curiously into his eyes. "I had to talk with someone. What were you doing when Dev heard you?"

"Oh, I was, er, typing. I'm sorry." A guilty look crosses his sweet face. Before Omni got a chance to say anything, the boy continued. "I saw you plugged in and, I don't know why, but I went over to Dee's chair and just... began to type. I don't think I knew what I was doing, but it just came, and I couldn't stop myself."

Although Ray couldn't see it, he knew that the girl was upset with him when she glided over to the chair, slid on the headset, and began to type while glancing at the screens. "Oh dear God..." the Captain said.

"What is it?" Ray asked before he could stop himself.

She glanced at him as she said, "Do you know what you did?"

"No," the guilty boy replied, "I said I was sorry."

"Ray, don't be sorry. You've learned how to locate people in the Matrix. For some new Operators, that can take days, even weeks. It's amazing."

From the look on his face, Omni could tell that he was confused, repeating her words in his head. "So that's good?"

"Well, it'll be good if you ever become an Operator," replied the Captain. "It's certainly not bad though." She gave him an encouraging smile before inquiring, "Do you know if Kenny is still awake?"

Ray nodded, and absent-mindedly walked with her to Chief's door, while knowing she obviously must know where his room is. Omni flashed him another smile and told him to go to bed and get some rest before she entered the room. "Hello guys," she greeted everyone as she entered the room. The others greeted her as well – Emily gave her a little salute, Kenny nodded, Tochi stood up and went into a deep bow, Blaze merely voiced a greeting, and KC motioned for her to take a seat.

"Back so soon, Cappy?" the latter teenager asked.

Omni nodded as she sat down next to him. "Yeah, there was an agent... and there was some sort of misunderstanding between Devi and Ray –" Emily and Kenny's ears perked up at the beyblader's name "– and now Devi's pissed off at herself, and she ran off... I don't know where she's gone off to. Hope she doesn't try something like last time..."

The group exchanged foreboding looks as they all remembered something they would rather forget. Breaking the awkward silence, Kenny spoke up. "What was Ray and Devi's misunderstanding?"

Omni told them all she knew about the ordeal, and they decided to check on the little one later. Then she remembered what Ray's new-found skill was. "When I checked out what he had done after Devi'd run off, I realized that he had somehow learned how to located people."

"What?!" Emily exclaimed, though keeping her voice down.

"That's amazing!" added Kenny, keeping a quiet voice as well.

The Captain nodded. "Yeah, weird, too. Doesn't even know how he done it."

Remembering what they were supposed to be talking about, Tochi said, "What are we doing with them tomorrow?"

"Well, I figured we might as well give them some driving lessons," replied Omni. "Hopefully we can get Devi to come too, she loves driving."

The small group of people muffled their laughter so as to not awaken anyone. Yes, Devi definitely did love driving, and was pretty damn good at it too.

"Anyway, I think we should all go to bed now..." Tochi said, seeing the drowsiness in many of the others. "Captain, did you want me to stay up and watch over the Matrix? You look like you need to rest."

She shook her head, giving him a 'Thanks anyway,' kind of look, but he persisted.

"For the past couple of nights your gotten four, maybe five hours of sleep, tops, ma'am. Take some time off, please," he begged.

The girl got to her feet. "No, and I do not want to repeat myself. Now let's all leave Kenny in peace, and everyone go back to your quarters." They all nodded and exited the room. Once they were in the corridor, Omni separated herself from the rest of the group as she went towards the core, whereas the others were heading to their bedrooms. All except for Tochi. "I thought I told you to go to bed, like the others."

"You did say that, Captain," agreed he.

She looked at him, her face filled with curiosity. "And you defy your Captain's orders, then?"

"Well, actually, Captain, I'm due to relieve Phantom of his post in a half hour's time, so I didn't see any real reason for heading off to bed."

Omni didn't say anything as they continued down the hall, side by side. He put him arm around her shoulders, but she didn't object to this. Instead, she did the same with him. "You do know that you were wrong about the time, right? You don't relieve him for an hour."

"I know. I want to keep you in check though, and make sure you don't count sheep on the job."

* * *

"Devi!" a voice called out the next morning. There were about a dozen others doing the same thing; some of the voices were embedded with anger, others with fear, yet others with annoyance, and a few with worried fear. One of the ones with the latter tone was slightly hoarse-voiced at the moment – Omni was like this because she'd been looking for the child constantly for around an hour – all the others had taken five or ten minute breaks every now and then. "Devi, come out!"

Walking into the mess hall for the hundredth time that day, she spotted KC, who was staring off into space. He didn't move and inch as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"KC?" she asked. Still, he remained stationary. "KC!" repeated the girl, causing him to jump to life.

"Wha happened?"

She shook her head disappointedly. "You were staring off."

"S...sorry. Any progress?" The Captain shook her head, and KC noticed a tear escape her reddened eye. "Don't cry, Captain. We'll find her, I promise, and she'll be safe and sound. Trust me."

Omni took a seat about a foot away from the boy. "I sure as hell hope you're right," replied the younger of the two in a choked voice. She blinked furiously, but could not halt the oncoming flow of tears. KC immediately slid over next to her and clutched her in his arms, whispering encouraging things in her ear as she buried her face in his shoulder.

Tyson and Max were walking through the halls then, wondering what the hell was going on. But Ty was hungry, so they decided to get some food and question whoever was in the mess hall. They'd almost gotten to the doorway when Tyson spotted KC's face and stopped his friend is his tracks. 'If it's that bastard in there,' though Tyson, who hadn't thought good of KC since their little talk, 'then I don't want to eat.'

However, when they continued down the corridor, he couldn't help but glance in, and then he saw Omni, crying her heart out in KC's shoulder. Once again, he paused his friend and himself, only this time he went into the room.

"What's going on?" asked Ty, as the two beybladers seated themselves across from the others.

"You don't know?" questioned KC.

Granger shook his head. "Nope. Nobody's told us."

"We can't find Devi. Everyone's been looking for her since morning, and we've swept the ship, looking everywhere we could. We're just hoping that she's alright."

Both of the Blade Breakers looked sympathetically at the Captain. Max was about to say something when a figure appeared in the doorway, making the boys gasp – Omni didn't see anything of course, for she was still crying. On closer inspection, it was, in fact, Devi, who looked as though she'd been up all night, crying. She did look much paler than usual.

"Dev!" KC exclaimed, and the older girl sat bolt upright, wiping her eyes in her sleeve. Devi stood there, looking deathly white, as though she'd seen a ghost or something.

KC had just stood up to go see her when her knees gave way and she fell to the floor. He bolted to her and lifted her into his arms before setting her on the table. Looking her over, the oldest in the room noticed her pant leg was torn and there was a cut on the back of her thigh. It was bleeding quite a bit.

"Shit! How'd you get that?" asked the boy.

The little girl forced a smile. "Loose screw, I think. Up in the rafters."

KC and Omni glanced at each other, and neither wanted to leave the girl at the moment. "Tyson, Max," the Captain said, turning to them, "go to the core and tell whoever's there that we've found her and we need a medic."

Both of them nodded and ran off.

The boy that was left in the mess hall took off his sweater and wrapped it tightly around the youngster's leg. Omni sat up on the table next to her and hugged her. "Where the hell have you been? We've been looking for you forever."

"I spent the night mostly in the gun bay, and I hung out in the infirmary for a bit as well," she admitted. "Most of this morning I was up in the rafters..."

The Captain stared at the girl for a moment, and then broke into silent tears again. Devi latched on to her neck, hugging her tight, and let her cry into her shoulder. "I," she began, and proceeded to speak between sobs, "was afraid... afraid that you would... that you had..." Omni paused. "I didn't want to go through that fear again..."

"Don't worry, Cappy. I admit, I had though of doing it for a while, that's why I was in the infirmary. There were lots of scalpels and scissors and stuff there... but then I realized that if I had slit my wrists, stabbed myself, or even killed myself, that you'd have hated yourself more than getting killed by an agent or sentinels. You... you and the rest of the crew... you're all the reason I didn't do it this time. I love you guys... you're my family, and I don't want to cause any pain," explained the thirteen-year-old.

Just then, Cadin and Geichu entered the room, with several other people close behind, crowding the mess hall. "Oh God, I'm so happy to see you, you little devil!" exclaimed the girl, running over and hugging her. "So what did you do to yourself?"

As she pointed to the dark cloth bound around her leg, Geichu was looking somewhere besides there. He immediately snatched up her wrist, and everybody saw the blood in a thin line on it. "Dev..." he began.

"I never did it," she informed him. "I thought about it, and even took a bloody scalpel to it, running it against my skin. But I never did it. Just wipe away the blood."

At lunch that day, after the whole thing with Devi was over with, Dee informed the Blade Breakers that they would be learning to drive.

"I have my license," Kai shot back. "We all do."

Several of the people in the mess hall laughed. "Oh, we know you know how to drive. But we're going to teach you how _we_ drive," KC replied, then turned to Omni. "Boss, Matrix or simulation?"

She thought for a moment. "Simulation for practice, then Matrix to see if they pass." The people in the room exchanged significant looks – this would be their first time in the Matrix since they'd learnt the truth. The Captain hauled out a sheet of paper and began to write something. "I figure they'll be in separate cars, with two instructors each. I'll put Kenny and Emily in with the Blade Breakers' chick, I think –" Hilary blushed slightly "– and KC and Blaze will be with Tyson." Ty gulped; he knew KC was going to be tough on him. "Max will be taught by Phantom and Dea, and Ray can go with the medics. Myself and Tochi will take Kai."

Everybody nodded and Devi arrived. Nobody could see it, but her leg saw sewn up from the cut. "So I'm guessing I don't get to teach anyone, then?"

In a very serious tone, Omni said, "You're in very serious condition, young lady, and I will not be allowing you to jack in for some time." There was an unpleasant silent, before everybody save for the beybladers cracked up. "No, but seriously, I thought you didn't like teaching and going in the simulations, so I was just going to get you to test them when they went into the Matrix."

"Okay then," she agreed and then sat down to a bowl of unappealing flavorless slop – the stuff they called food. "As long as I get to do something."

Some time after lunch everybody that Omni had said was going to be instructing and learning got plugged in. First they went to the construct. "Alright, everyone. You're going to have to pick out a vehicle in a moment. Now keep in mind, it should be a car, because they're light and pretty speedy. You must pick something that has a top speed of a fair bit more than two hundred kilometers, okay? Now, what do you want?"

After the cars had been picked out, they separated into the teams of three that had been set at lunchtime. The cars appeared on five different concrete roads, and the groups took a test run to see how the Blade Breakers drove, reminding them that they could go as fast as they wanted – as long as they didn't run off the road, of course. Tyson seemed to have a need for speed – he was going at a speed of 150 km/h. Kai and Ray seemed to maintain a speed of about 185, whereas Max only went at about one hundred. Hilary, however, was as conservative as she was annoying, only driving at about 50.

"Okay, okay, stop now," Dee's voice commanded from the heavens. "I said STOP!" With that, red traffic lights and stop signs popped up out of nowhere, and everyone – eventually – came to a stop. "You all suck! You're going to slow!"

With this said, the instructors laid down the 'Top Five Rules of Driving in the Matrix'. The first rule was that you avoid the freeway at all cost – apparently it was suicide. Although none of the Blade Breakers really understood this, they nodded. Rule number two was that when you are not being chased by any form of law official or an agent, you stay under the speed limit. Drawing unneeded attention was bad for the crew, especially if it meant agents. Thirdly, when driving, if a police car is behind you and asks you to stop, you get the hell out of there – you never know if the cop will turn into an agent. The fourth rule was that speed limits are there for a reason. When you are being followed, you are to go no less than twice the speed limit. Hence, if the limit is sixty, you must exceed one hundred twenty. And the last and final rule – never lose the keys to your vehicle, because you might get in some nasty business with an agent.

Pretty soon, the Operator ran some very convincing simulations, testing them for the five rules to see how they would adapt from their original way of driving. Surprisingly, Hilary – who usually aced every test – did very bad, but did improve a little through the course of the training. Two hours after they'd been jacked in, the teachers agreed that they were ready.

Everybody was jacked out at this point, to give the students a ten-minute break and give them a talk about the Matrix. About fifteen minutes after, they were back in the chairs, but the only one of the 'instructors' who was going to go back in was Omni. The others that went in were Cire, Devi, Kimmy, and Strife.

Soon, they entered a room, one by one, where a phone rang. Omni answered it. "We're in. Where are the cars? Good. We'll see you soon."

Cire looked around at everyone. He and the boys all wore long, black cloaks, as did Strife. Kimmy wore black pants and a black T-shirt under a black trench coat, and so did Hilary. Devi was sporting a white, sleeveless blouse and white jeans, underneath a white trench coat. Omni wore a creamy, spaghetti-strap top and white (what looked like) leather pants. All ten of them wore sunglasses. The old man handed everybody a cellular phone, and then made sure they were equipped with guns. Hilary didn't want to touch any one the pockets in her jacket, for she knew she was armed with four pistols.

"Our vehicles are in the indoor parking lot below this building. They are all the same, so pick a color. The examiners all have keys. We are to go into the lot one at a time, with one or two minutes between each pair. Cire, you will be going with Max, Kim, you can take Tyson, Strife'll be with Kai, Devi with Hilary, and I'll be with you, Ray. The first pair to go will be the girls, then Strife and her boy, followed by Cire and Max, then Kim and her student. You and I go last, Ray. Everyone got it?" The teachers all nodded. "Now, if you run into any trouble, phone Dee – just dial '0' on your phones, kids – and she'll get you to an exit. She'll be watching us anyway, so we should be safe."

The Beybladers looked extremely nervous, especially Hilary. Cire gave her an encouraging smile. "Don't worry," he said, "you'll be okay." She tried – but failed horribly – to return a grin.

"Let us go," Devi spoke up. They exited the room and split into pairs; Ray and Omni stayed by the door of the room they'd just come out of, trying to look normal by chatting; Kimmy and Ty leaned their elbows on the window sill at the bottom of the first staircase; Cire and Max were at the top of the next set of stairs, so that they were barely two meters away from Kim and Tyson, and appeared to be having a father-son chat; Strife and Kai were at the opposite end of the staircase Cire and Maxie were on; Devi and Hilary went straight to the parking lot.

Hilary looked around at all the cars, and finally indicated a pink one with a retractable roof. Devi almost gagged, but nodded all the same as they made their way to it. She tossed a keychain over to her student, and as they got into the car, picked up her phone and called Strife. "Strife? Yeah, we just got in a car. A pink one." Even Hilary, who'd retracted the roof, could hear the laughter from the other end, Strife was laughing so loud. "Oh, shut it before I die your hair pink. Anyway, we're leaving the parking lot now. Bye."

Hilary listened closely to Devi's directions as they entered the bustling city. She couldn't help but notice all the people on the sidewalks. But when the thirteen-year-old noticed this, she yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"I was just –"

"Keep your eyes on the fucking road! That's the most primary rule of driving! Even when the Neanderthals first invented round stone wheels, they made sure to keep their eyes glued to the hard-packed dirt road!"

Hilary muttered an apology and went back to staring at the street. "How long are we going to be driving?" she asked.

"I'm not quite sure, actually... Captain never said. I expect we'll be called, either when your friends fail horribly or when they decide they've had enough... or when something goes horribly wrong," replied the younger or the two. "Make a left at the next turn."

For the next ten or so minutes, they drove throughout the city. Hilary made one or two serious mistakes ("What are you doing?" "I'm going on the highway." "That's the freeway!" "Oh, sorry, I didn't know.") but was quickly corrected by her teacher. Finally, they were on one of the highways, and Hilary slowed to a halt.

Devi waited a moment for Hilary to start the car again, but then asked, "Why did you stop?"

"Because of the –" she began, but was cut off.

"Hello, young ladies," a voice came. Both girls whirled around to see, at the driver's window, a handsome older gentleman. He was wearing a police uniform and tipped his hat in greeting. "May I see your license please?"

Hilary nodded, and poked around in one of the pockets in her coat after taking off her seatbelt. What she didn't realize was the cop had spotted one of the pistols placed in her pockets.

"Hold it right there!" he screamed, and both girls heard a gun being drawn. "Take off your jacket, Miss!"

"Fuck you, you bastard!" Devi had already released her seatbelt, and in a flash her hands were on the back of Hil's seat, and her feet walloped into the officer's face, knocking him backwards. As Devi came back down, she shoved into her student's side, pushing the older girl to the passenger side but slamming her into the door. In less than a second, the engine was growling, and they were speeding down the highway at amazing speed – Hilary didn't dare move enough to look at the speedometer. All she did was put on her seatbelt and lie back.

"Fuck!" yelled the girl, but due to the fact that they were going nearly three hundred kilometers per hour, Hilary had to strain to hear it. "Fuck, Hilary! You know the rules!" Soon, however, she'd slowed to just over two hundred. "Are they following us?" She tried hard to keep her voice even. With a quick glance, Devi saw that Hilary was white as a ghost and staring straight ahead, holding on to the door handle. "Jesus, Hilary, are they fucking following us?!"

Hilary snapped out of the trance and looked backwards; four cop cars, sirens blaring, could be seen in the distance. "Yes!" she replied, terrified.

"Mother-fucking cops," the younger of the two said. "Can you shoot a gun, girl?"

Hil bit her lip. "Yes, I was taught."

"Then take out your fucking pistols and fuck up those fucking cop cars as fucking fast as fucking humanly possible!" ordered Devi. Hilary whirled around in her seat and did as she was told. Devi, on the other hand, was now driving with one hand, as the other was searching her pockets for her cell phone. It was ringing already, so she answered it.

It was Dee. "What in God's name just happened, kiddo?"

"Hilary broke rule three!" replied Devi. "How bad is it?"

Typing could be heard in the distance. "Well, you haven't got it that bad, it's only four agents."

"Four! Fuck, fuck this! This girl should never be fucking allowed in the Matrix again!" screamed the youngster. "How long until I lose sight of them?"

"Well, if you keep going at this speed and they keep going at their speed, you can lose them in maybe five minutes, but –"

Devi interrupter her. "But I'll be on the freeway."

"Exactly. That was the 'but'."

"So, what do you suggest I do?"

More typing could be heard. "Make a left at the next exit."

"Okay," she said. "Hold on, girl, we're turning!" She felt Hilary slide back into her seat as she turned, and get up again to shoot. "Where's the nearest hard-line?"

"Well... the nearest is a block up and then to the left for two blocks. The only thing is, it's in an airport lobby."

Devi swore loudly. "Where's the closest one besides that?"

"Um... about three minutes away, but that would only be if you maintained the speed you're at now, which you can't do unless you want a dozen more cops on your ass," explained the Operator. Dee could hear more swearing. "I guess it'll be the airport then?"

Dev sighed. "Yeah, it'll have to be. Will y – OW!"

"What the hell just happened?"

Devi bit her lip as pain from the bullet that had pierced through her arm surged through her. "Bullet," she replied. "Will you be ready for us?"

"Yeah, you just get your ass their now," replied Dee, and bother girls hung up. "You alright Hilary?"

The girl gave an affirmative answer and kept shooting. "How much longer?"

"We're closing in on the exit now," replied the younger. "Should be out in a minute, two tops." The car screeched to a halt in front of a large airport, and Devi grabbed Hilary's arm and jumped out of the car with her before the vehicle had completely halted. They bolted to the entrance, shoving people aside, and came to a phone booth, where the telephone was already ringing. Hilary picked it up and immediately disappeared. Devi had just put the receiver back when she saw two agent – grown men wearing suits and sunglasses and carrying guns – enter the airport. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath, hauling out a pistol and wishing Dee would hurry up. When the telephone gave a loud ring, the agents' attention was drawn to if, and they fired – but all they managed to hit was the tip of the receiver as it fell limply, dangling by it's cord.

* * *

Back on the ship, the young girl opened her eyes to see several faces staring down worriedly at her. Devi felt KC yank the spike gently from her head before helping her sit up.

"Is she okay?" Dee hollered from her seat.

The child grinned. "Depends on your definition of 'okay'," replied she. "I'm alive, I can feel the blood rushing through my veins, I've retained all my senses, and as far as I know, I'm not terminally ill." Several people laughed at this. As they parted to let her free, Devi saw Hilary weeping into Tyson's shoulder by the far wall. She did not feel sympathy for the girl – in fact, she clenched her hands into fists, but tried to keep a pleasant look on her face as she turned to the Captain and asked, "Captain, may I request something of you?"

"Request away, kiddo."

"I must request that Hilary –" the Blade Breaker's wheeled to face whoever was speaking "– be restricted from the Matrix until further notice." Everybody looked between the quite serious-looking Captain, Devi – who was looking oddly serious and very pissed off – and Hilary, who was staring blankly at the girl, in shock.

Omni seemed to be thinking this over. "May I ask for the reasons that are the basis for this request?" She was being strangely formal, something that wasn't often seen on anyone when they were on board the ship.

Devi's choked up voice was slightly high-pitched at first. "Reasons? I'll give you some goddamn reasons! First, she nearly broke rule one of driving in the Matrix –"

"I didn't know it was the freeway!" Hil shot back.

"– then she seriously breaches fucking rule three –"

"It was a police officer! I forgot, okay? I'm used to abiding by the law! I forgot they could turn into agents!"

"– oh, and then the cop saw one of the fucking pistols she was carrying! You never show a fucking cop a weapon!"

"I'm sorry!"

"And not only did she seriously endanger her own life, but mine as well, and I got shot in the fucking arm! If I hadn't acted so fucking impulsively, and driven my fucking ass off to get to that fucking airport, I – and she too – could be in a fucking body bag right now!"

The entire ship fell silent, save for Hilary's muffled sobbing into Tyson's shoulder. Omni looked to Cire for guidance to find that he'd left the room, probably to get something to eat. The youngest crewmember latched her arms around Phantom's neck and he squeezed her back, glad she was alive.

Omni sighed. "I will think over your request and answer it tomorrow," she said simply before heading through the doorway.

"Captain!" Devi yelled. The addressee whirled around. "I... I'm sorry for freaking out like that."

She nodded and walked to her room.

"You going to be okay, kid?" asked Phantom, as he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him. She bit her lip and nodded before resting her head on his shoulder.

"I knew today was going to be doomed," said Dee. "It was obvious from early this morning."

Cadin tilted her head questioningly. "What do you mean?"

The Operator smiled. "Well, first the whole _incident_, and then... you know someone always screws up during driving lessons. Only thing is, it's usually during the lessons themselves, not the test."

Hilary looked guiltily at Dee and then Devi.

* * *

**Me**: Any good? Hope you liked it! If you did, feel free to review! Any questions, just ask! Bye bye! Y'all come back now, ya hear?


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